18 July 1860 total solar eclipse

Photograph of the 18 July 1860 total solar eclipse. This is one of the photographs obtained by British astronomer Warren de la Rue (1815-1889), of the total solar eclipse he observed at Rivabellosa, Spain, on 18 July 1860. This was among the first solar eclipses to be photographed, and the expedition to observe it is thought to be the first concerted effort to observe an eclipse by photography. De la Rue proved from his photographs that the flares around an eclipse were solar in origin. Total solar eclipses (when the Sun is completed obscured by the Moon) usually occur less than once a year, last only a few minutes and can only be seen from a small area of the Earth's surface.