The sunspot cycles since 1610. The diagram shows the sunspot numbers plotted against time. The stars are the maximum values of the sunspot (Schwabe) cycles. The strong variations are apparent. The three Grand Episodes are marked by their different colours. They are separated by vertical black lines – cf. Figure 5, later this section. The open triangles are our predictions, based on the two types of aa data used, viz. the standard data (green; De Jager & Duhau 2009) and the Lockwood data (blue; Duhau & De Jager 2010).The vertical green line through the green triangle is the estimated error. The horizontal line at sunspot number R ≈ 94 marks the level of the Transition Point, cf. its definition later in this section.