365 Days of Astronomy: Sunspots are an important tool for studying the solar cycle. Although records date back hundreds of years, observer bias and the available instruments make it hard to compare modern sunspot counts to historical sunspot counts. In this podcast, National Solar Observatory’s Fraser Watson talks about the STARA Sunspot Detection Catalog and how it can be used to study current as well as historical sunspot patterns. Rob Sparks is a science education specialist in the Education and Public Outreach (EPO) group at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) and works on the Galileoscope project (www.galileoscope.org), providing design, dissemination and professional development. He blogs at halfastro.wordpress.com. Fraser Watson is a postdoctoral researcher with Dr Matthew Penn and I am currently looking at the long term properties of sunspots using the SOHO/MDI and SDO/HMI instruments along with automated sunspot detection methods. I also created and maintain the STARA sunspot detections catalogue, which contains all sunspots seen by SOHO and SDO since 1996. The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is a project that is publishing one podcast per day, 5 to 10 minutes in duration, for all 365 days of the year. The podcast episodes are written, recorded and produced by people around the ...