Transcript: Sunspots have been carefully observed for over four hundred years since the invention of the telescope. This long span of observations reveals intriguing patterns beyond the basic eleven year sunspot cycle. There are longer variations over centuries as well. The last few sunspot cycles have been historically high compared to those a hundred or two hundred years ago. We have to be careful about long scale variations because sunspots have only been recorded photographically or with electronic detectors relatively recently. Most of the first hundred years of sunspot observations were made through telescopes but transcribed by drawings by eye. However, it is almost certain that in the mid-sixteenth century for a span of about fifty years the sunspot levels were enormously lower than the present day. Even at their maximum the number of sunspots was nearly an order of magnitude lower than we see presently. This period was called the Maunder minimum, and intriguingly it correlates with substantial climate change in Europe. Europe went through a mini ice age during exactly the same span. The correlation between low sunspot numbers and climate change was first seen for the Maunder minimum but has now been seen in other aspects of sunspot behavior as well.