At the 1860 eclipse, photographs obtained by W.
The first successful total eclipse photograph was taken on July 1851 by Berkowski from Königsberg. The British amateur astronomer Francis Baily observed from the 1836 annular eclipse the irregularities of the lunar limb. It was Cassini who established a link with the solar zodiacal light in 1683. Even Halley (who predicted with success the path of the 1715 eclipse) and Arago interpreted the corona to be lunar in origin. Kepler attributed it to solar light refracted by the atmosphere of the Moon. Until then it was thought that the corona might come from terrestrial smoke, or that it indicated a lunar atmosphere. The corona seen during eclipses was only identified as a solar phenomenon in the middle of the 19th century. They also noted phenomena related to eclipses. The ancient Greeks and Romans used dated references to eclipses to improve the calendar. This has allowed more precise measurement of lunar acceleration and the slowing down in Earth's rotation.Īnalysis of the refracted light of Earth's atmosphere during lunar eclipses has also made it possible to show that atmospheric ozone is confined to a layer between 50 and 80 kilometres above Earth's surface. Today, during lunar eclipses, laser-ranging measurements can be made with great accuracy using reflectors placed on the Moon during the Apollo and Lunokhod missions. In the 17th century, in order to improve longitude determination, absolute cartography made use of lunar eclipse phenomena, which were observable simultaneously from different points. Hipparcos (150 BC) and Ptolemeus (2nd century AD) improved with impressive precision the measurements of the lunar diameter and Earth-Moon distance. Using Eratosthene's previous measurement of Earth's diameter, he deduced the Earth-Moon distance. Using lunar eclipse timing, as far back as the third century BC, Aristarchus from Samos estimated the lunar diameter. The study of Earth's shadow projected on the Moon allows us to deduce that Earth is spherical.