We use archival daily spot coverage measurements from Howard et al .
( 1984 ) to study the rotational modulation of the Sun as though it were a distant star .
A quasi-periodic Gaussian process measures the solar rotation period P _ { \mathrm { rot } } = 26.3 \pm 0.1 days , and activity cycle period P _ { \mathrm { cyc } } = 10.7 \pm 0.3 years .
We attempt to search for evidence of differential rotation in variations of the apparent rotation period throughout the activity cycle and do not detect a clear signal of differential rotation , consistent with the null results of the hare-and-hounds exercise of Aigrain et al .
( 2015 ) .
The full reconstructed solar light curve is available online .