For centuries, people have been eager to catch a glimpse of a solar eclipse. From astronomers with custom photographic equipment to crowds of people wearing special glasses, this sight has captivated the human imagination.
In 1860, Warren de la Rue took what many sources say is the first photograph of a total solar eclipse. He took this photo in Rivabellosa, Spain, using a device known as his photoheliograph. This telescope and camera combination was made specifically for photographing the Sun.
Forty years later, magician and astronomy enthusiast Neville Maskelin photographed a total solar eclipse in North Carolina. However, the footage was lost and was only made public in 2019 when it was rediscovered in the archives of the Royal Astronomical Society.
telescope vision
For scientists and astronomers, solar eclipses not only provide an opportunity to observe the moon's umbra and observe the sun's corona, but also provide opportunities to make observations to further research. Our friendly neighbors with many observatories and telescopes also open their equipment to the public during the eclipse.
Fredrik Hjalmar Johansen, Fridtjof Nansen, and Sigurd Scott-Hansen observe a solar eclipse during a polar expedition in 1894.
A woman and her professor at Wellesley College, Massachusetts, traveled to New London, Connecticut in 1922 ahead of an eclipse trip (to “catch Old Man Sol in the act,” as the original New York Times article put it). , tested the equipment.
A group from Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania traveled to Yerbaniz, Mexico, in 1923 with a telescope and a 65-foot camera to observe the sun's corona.
Dr. JJ Nassau, director of the Warner Swasey Observatory at the Case School of Applied Science in Cleveland, was preparing to head to Douglas Hill, Maine, to study the 1932 solar eclipse. An entire freight car was required to transport the engine's equipment.
Visitors observe a solar eclipse at an observatory in Berlin in the mid-1930s.
In 1963, a family installed two telescopes in Bar Harbor, Maine. The two children placed stones on the stand to stabilize the telescope.
In June 1973, an astronomer inspected solar eclipse equipment in the Mauritanian desert. We believe his clothing choices are due to the hot weather.
indirect light
If you see people sprinting to their local parks on Monday, clutching pieces of paper or carrying cardboard boxes over their heads, they're probably planning on reflecting or projecting images of the eclipse onto surfaces.
Cynthia Goulakos demonstrated a safe way to observe a solar eclipse in Lowell, Massachusetts in 1970 by using two pieces of cardboard to create a shadowed reflection of the sun.
Another common option is to create a pinhole camera. This woman was photographed in Central Park in 1963 using a paper cup with a small hole in the bottom and a twin-lens reflex camera.
In 1967, amateur astronomers watched a partial solar eclipse projected from a telescope onto a screen from atop the Empire State Building.
In 1970, back in Central Park, Irving Schwartz and his wife placed binoculars on the edge of a trash can and projected the eclipse onto paper.
Children in Denver in 1979 used a cardboard viewing box and paper with small pinholes to view a projection of a partial solar eclipse.
In 1995, in Hanoi, Vietnam, a crowd gathered around a basin of water stained with dark ink, waiting for the reflection of a solar eclipse to appear.
Staring at the Sun (or How to Avoid Burning Your Retinas)
Over the years, eclipse watchers have used a variety of methods to protect their eyes, some safer than others.
In 1927, women gathered in the windows of a London building to watch a total solar eclipse through smoked glass. It was popularized in France in the 1700s, but fell out of favor when doctors began writing treatises on children with impaired vision.
Another trend was to use strips of exposed photographic film, as seen in Sydney, Australia in 1948 and Turkana, Kenya in 1963. This method was also proposed in the Times in his 1979, but has since been declared unsafe.
Eclipse glasses are a popular and safe way to view the event (if you use a model that complies with international safety standards). Different styles have emerged over the years, including these large handheld options discovered in West Palm Beach, Florida in 1979.
In 1981, a parent and child observed a partial solar eclipse through solar eclipse glasses in Tokyo.
A slimmer and more colorful option was used in Colombia's Nabushimaque in 1998.
In France in 1999.
and in Iran and the UK in 1999.
And what's the best way to view a solar eclipse? Parties with family and friends, like the Watch His party in Madagascar's Isalo National Park in 2001.