This Halifax man is seeing sunspots

I often say how blessed I am to have such a wonderful following. Sitting here, alone in my weather centre all day, could be quite boring if not for the marvellous interaction with you. From the wonderful questions to the magnificent photos and the stirring sto-ries, you are the hot pepper flakes on my pizza. I have so many loyal followers that I hesitate to single anyone out, but you’ll soon understand why. If you’ve been following me for the past couple of decades, I’m sure you will recognize the name Michael Boschat. Not long after I moved to Halifax and before social media, I got to know Michael through our shared passion - the sky. I wanted to be able to predict exactly what the weather was going to be, while Michael didn’t want any weather at all. Michael is a member of the Royal Astronomical Soci-ety of Canada. He has worked at the Atmospheric Department at Dalhousie University in Halifax for almost 30 years. Since 2002, he has maintained their Aeronet Sunphotometer. I remember the first time I met Michael. I convinced the news director at Global TV to let me do a story about this man who slept during the day and kept a watchful eye on the night sky by night. From Halifax rooftops, Michael has photographed everything from lightning to explosions on the surface of the sun. He has always been very generous in sharing the secrets of the night sky with us. Michael quietly goes about his business and would probably not want me to acknowledge, so publicly anyway, the important work that he does. Over the years, I learned that Michael looks to the heavens during the day too. In fact, a few months ago, he received the 2019 Solar Award for a cumulative contribution of 3,500 sunspot ob-servations. Earlier this year, with very little fanfare, Michael attached a lovely certificate to an email; the sub-ject line “Despite all the bad weather, I still manage to observe the sun.” I smile each time I read the signature at the bottom of an email from Michael: “Clear skies, Michael Boschat Halifax (K’jipuktuk =) Center - Royal Astronomical Society of Canada My 60th anniversary of doing Astronomy - 1960-2020” Thank you for educating us, Michael. Keep an eye on the sky and I’ll try to keep the clouds away! By the way, it’s not safe to stare directly at the sun... let Michael do it for you.

Michael Boschat, member of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.

On Nov. 11, 2019, Mercury, the innermost planet of our solar system, was expected to transit or pass directly in front of the sun. That morning, Michael Boschat set up his equipment and waited. Passing clouds prevented him from get-ting the complete transit. However, we got this fabulous photo of the sun. Michael photographed it by holding his Canon XSI over a 32mm eyepiece on my ETX90 telescope.