28 July

1851: On 28 July 1851, the first photograph of a total solar eclipse was made. The photograph was a daguerrotype, had a 24 second exposure and was taken by a Herr Berkowski from Königsberg, Germany.

At the next opportunity, at the 1860 eclipse, photographs obtained by W. De La Rue and A. Secchi from two sites 500 kilometres apart showed that the observed prominences could not belong to the Moon, but were in fact of solar origin.