Except that such stories serve to call the attention of unscientific people to scientific facts, and teach them to observe the wonders of the universe, it really seems a shame that such marvels should be used as bogies to scare the ignorant and superstitious.
As a matter of fact, very little is known about these sun-spots. They occur in greatest numbers in periods of about eleven years apart, and astronomers and geologists agree that periods of rainy and dry seasons seem to correspond with the sun-spot periods.
When the greatest number of spots are visible on the sun, scientists agree that the climatic conditions on the earth are normal and even. When there are fewest spots on the sun we have extreme temperature and sudden changes. When we say that astronomers and geologists agree on this point, we must also admit that some astronomers are not quite satisfied that the fact has been proved.
The only fact that has been actually proved to everybody's satisfaction is that, during the time when the most spots are visible on the sun, there are always more magnetic storms and displays of the aurora borealis.
A magnetic storm is a disturbance of the magnetic field which surrounds the earth; its presence is shown by a disturbance of the needle of the compass, and it often interferes with the electrical currents, making it difficult and sometimes impossible to use the telegraph-wires.
The aurora borealis is a wonderful light seen in the sky in high latitudes, and less frequently in other parts of the world—except during the activity of the sun-spots.
It appears as irregular patches and dancing columns of light which flame across the sky. Red, white, pale green—these shafts are now dim, now bright, seeming to throb and pulse as they glow and pale. As you watch them they change their form, and, from being pillars of fire, change to masses of glowing color.
A flash-light dancing across the sky gives you some, though a very poor notion, of an aurora. The aurora has thousands of such flashes of light, changing form and color as you watch them—filmy shafts of light, coming you know not whence.
The spots on the sun are described as being dark patches which are visible on the bright surface of the sun. They often appear in groups, and frequently the larger spots will break up into smaller ones. They are great depressions or holes in the surface of the sun, and are supposed to be formed by descending currents of gases.
Sun-spots are generally found in the neighborhood of the sun's equator, and last from a few hours to a few months.