The total solar eclipse , of july 18, 1860

Description

Without wrappers, as extracted from "Philosophical Transactions" 1862. Vol. 152 - Part II. Pp. 333-416, text illustrations (his photoheliography), colour scale and 13 plates. Plates slightly soiled, but the 6 engraved plates, showing the prominences, only the margins affected by the soiling. These facsimiles (copies of retouched photographs) are probably the first of their kind. Text clean. First appearance of a pioneering paper in astronomical photography, in which he took wet plate photographs of the sun obscured by the moon during a total solar eclipse, and from them discovered solar prominences. - This was the first solar eclipse to be photographed, using the Kew Photoheliograph, a combined camera and telescope built expressly for this purpose, designed by de la Rue and constructed in 1857 by Andrew Ross. De la Rue, Warren 1815-89, British scientist and inventor. Especially known as an astronomer, he was a pioneer in celestial photography. He adapted the wet plate process to lunar photography and invented (1858) for the Kew Observatory a photoheliograph, the first device to yield good solar images.