In the 1950’s Dr. Jaegger (sp?) at the volcano study center in Hawaii discovered that the level of the lava pool in the largest volcano raised and lowered in a way correlated with the sunspot cycles.
There’s a longer cycle (of sorts, as with all natural “cycles” it’s about as regular and scientific as biorhythms) involving the Sun with Jupiter and Saturn, and it has been said to correspond with sunspot activity.
Jupiter — 4332 day year (IOW, Earth days used to measure the sidereal year)
Saturn — 10,759 day year
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100330133835AAnmAWi
[snip] The eight planets (without Pluto, and not counting the sun) would align within 1 degree, about once every 34 thousand billion years. That’s over 2000 times older than the age of the universe. Calculations have been carried out for 10 million years into the past and future, and the planets have never lined up and never will. [/snip]
http://www.bautforum.com/showthread.php/71027-Jupiter-influencing-sunspots
http://www.bautforum.com/archive/index.php/t-106866.html
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2003AGUFMSH42B0546A
http://www.spacebanter.com/showthread.php?t=133183
unrelated:
http://wn.com/Danjon_scale
It's Always Something.