[JohnnyP]

They told us it was the absence of sunspots and called it the Maunder Minimum.

[kiryandil]

They told us it was the absence of sunspots and called it the Maunder Minimum.

They blinded us with Science.

[njslim]

Correlation between sunspots and colder climate was made early in 20th by Anglo-Irish astronomer E W Maunder early in 20th cent by examining records of sunspots kept by Armagh university of the late 18th to 20th cent

[zeugma]

They told us it was the absence of sunspots and called it the Maunder Minimum.

Could be a combination. The Chinese have really good records of sunspot activity going back centuries.

[Paal Gulli]

"They told us it was the absence of sunspots and called it the Maunder Minimum."

Not likely, seeing as how the Maunder Minimum wasn't observed until three centuries after the Little Ice Age began.

The Spörer Minimum occurred centuries before the invention of the telescope but was determined through analysis of tree growth rings.