Early solar eclipse photography. 19th-century drawing based on a photograph of the total solar eclipse of 28 July 1851. This drawing was published in volume 41 of 'Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society'. This volume, published in 1879, was a special publication dedicated to the history of eclipse observations since 1715. The drawings were by William Henry Wesley. The caption below the drawing states that it is based on a steel engraving of the daguerrotype obtained with the heliometer at the Royal Observatory in Konigsberg, Prussia. It was obtained by a local daguerrotypist named Berkowski, acting on instructions from the observatory director August Busch. Exposed for 84 seconds at totality, this image shows the solar corona and is among the earliest photographs of a total solar eclipse.