Heritage of Konkoly's Solar Observations: the Debrecen Photoheliograph Programme and the Debrecen Sunspot Databases

TL;DR

This paper discusses the history and significance of the Debrecen Photoheliograph Programme and the associated sunspot databases, highlighting their role in long-term solar activity documentation since 1958 and their heritage from earlier observatories.

Contribution

It presents a comprehensive overview of the Debrecen solar observation programs and the historical context of the sunspot databases derived from Miklós Konkoly-Thege's observatory.

Findings

The Debrecen databases contain detailed sunspot records from 1872 onwards.

The long-term data enhances understanding of solar activity patterns.

Heritage from earlier observatories enriches current solar research.

Abstract

The primary task of the Debrecen Heliophysical Observatory (DHO) was to produce the detailed and reliable photographic documentation of the solar photospheric activity since 1958. This long-term effort resulted in various solar catalogues based on ground-based and space-borne observations. The DHO hosts solar-image databases containing heritages of two former Hungarian observatories. One of the sets of drawings was observed between 1872 and 1891 at the \'Ogyalla Observatory (now Hurbanovo, Slovakia) founded by Mikl\'os Konkoly-Thege (1842-1916). We briefly summarize the history of the events that resulted in the longest photographic sunspot database available at the DHO at present, and we show the basic role of Dr. Mikl\'os Konkoly-Thege in this achievement.