Welcome to the Val-u-Sun Citizen Science Project

Val-u-Sun citizen science project lets YOU, the citizen, be part of a scientific research.

Maybe you have already heard of sunspots. Basically, they're just dark, 'cold' spots on the surface of the Sun. But did you know that observers around the globe have been observing and drawing them by hand for more than 400 years and still continue to do so ? One might wonder why we, in our digital modern era still do it the old fashioned-way, with a pencil and a paper sheet. The answer is continuity. We keep the same method to be able to compare observations from the past with modern observations. This gives one of the longest scientific data archives in the history of science since Galileo started it more than 400 years ago !


You can help us to count sunspots and groups of sunspots on the original drawings from our archive. Don't panic, not on all of them ! We have made a selection of drawings, from different phases of the Sun's activity. Some have a lot of sunspots and sunspot groups, some have only a few.


The drawings you get have already been counted and analyzed by our team. The goal of this project is to compare statistically the number of sunspots counted by our team against those found by others. Since the drawing and counting of the sunspots can be a little subjective, we need some point of comparison. That would be YOU ! Don't you worry, there is no good or bad answer, your best effort is perfect.

We Only need 5-10 minutes of your time, you can help us greatly.
If you are ready to embark with us, we'll show you a quick example, we'll ask you to fill a quick form to know a little more about you. Then it'll be your turn.
sunspot drawing with big sunspot

Are you in?