Sunspot Observations of Rudolf Wolf from 1849 – 1893

The sunspot observations of Rudolf Wolf form the core of the Wolf series of sunspot relative numbers, or Wolf numbers, since his observations define the original scale of the series and also the main course of solar activity from 1849 to 1893. Unfortunately, the raw data for the years 1856 to 1869 were never published in full detail. The heritage group of the Rudolf Wolf Society in Switzerland digitized parts of the hitherto unpublished original source book of the Wolf series and put it on its website www.wolfinstitute.ch. Now, the Wolf numbers from 1849 to 1876, as provided by the World Data Center for Solar Index and Long-term Solar Observations (WDC-SILSO), can be reconstructed in every detail, since the source book contains all the raw sunspot group and individual spot numbers as well as the implemented calibration and interpolation methods. Thus, the observations made by Rudolf Wolf with the 83/1320 mm Fraunhofer refractor and with the 40/700 mm Parisian refractor as well as those made by Heinrich Schwabe can be identified and separated now. In this article, we describe Wolf’s instruments and methods of observation. An inspection of the source book and other published sources reveals that the calibration factor of the 40/700 mm Parisian refractor should probably be lowered. Since no appropriate comparison observations are available, the scale transfer from Heinrich Schwabe to Rudolf Wolf has to be analyzed further.