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施瓦布(1789-1875)原本是一個德國藥劑師，不過他終日幻想能藉著發現一顆運行於地球與太陽之間的行星而名留後世，於是他每日不間斷地對太陽作詳細的觀測，並記錄日面的太陽黑子以作核對，希望有朝一日能看見一顆新行星凌日（意即橫過太陽的表面）。他年復一年辛勤地觀測，可惜新行星始終沒有出現過。最後當他整理17年長的太陽黑子數記錄時，他很詑異太陽表面黑子的多寡似具有周期性質，於是他把這個新發現在雜誌上發表。由於他只是業餘科學家，他的著作在初期並未受到重視，直至著名的博物學家、探險家亞歷山大．馮．洪堡把他的發現刊於其《宇宙百科》內，太陽活動周期的事實才得到天文界的普遍認受。太陽的活動周期已被確認為11年，更可能是地球長期氣候變化的誘因之一。
The discovery of the 11-year solar cycle
Heinrich Schwabe (1789－1875) was a German pharmacist and an amateur astronomer. He had hoped to discover an unknown planet close to the sun, which he believed might be seen as a dark spot when passing in front of its mother star. Year after year Schwabe monitored the sun but all he saw were sunspots. After 17 years of observation he finally suspected a periodic variation of the number of sunspots that appeared on the surface of the sun. He published his findings in a short article. Since Schwabe was only an amateur astronomer, his article attracted little attention. It was Alexander von Humbolt who later publicised Schwabe's findings to the science world. The study of the 11-year solar cycle has become an important science ever since. ■甄枝強 資深天文愛好者
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