[fsk]

I thought the way that sunspot counting works is that you point a magnifying telescope at the sun, and the image projects on the floor. You look at the image on the floor.

He did have a valid point. For the data to be consistent across a 300+ year data set, he had to use the same method as his predecessors.

However, you could use technology to augment the manual count. They could use the same k-factor adjustment they used to compare multiple human counters, and use the same k-factor adjustment when technology changes.