Solar cycle 17 is the seventeenth solar cycle

Solar cycle

The solar cycle, or the solar magnetic activity cycle, is a periodic change in the amount of irradiation from the Sun that is experienced on Earth. It has a period of about 11 years, and is one component of solar variation, the other being aperiodic fluctuations. Solar variation causes changes in...

 since 1755, when recording of solar sunspot

Sunspot

Sunspots are temporary phenomena on the photosphere of the Sun that appear visibly as dark spots compared to surrounding regions. They are caused by intense magnetic activity, which inhibits convection by an effect comparable to the eddy current brake, forming areas of reduced surface temperature....

activity began. The solar cycle lasted 10.4 years, beginning in September 1933 and ending in February 1944. The maximum smoothed sunspot number (monthly number of sunspots averaged over a twelve month period) observed during the solar cycle was 119.2, and the minimum was 7.7. There were a total of 269 days with no sunspots during this cycle. A great aurora display was seen all over Europe on January 25, 1938, as far south as Portugal and Sicily, frightening many people. Aurora was visible over New York on April 3, 1940.