After the invention of the daguerreotype in 1837 by French chemist Louis Daguerre and the earliest photos of the Moon – first by Daguerre himself, then by John William Draper in 1840 – photographic sights turned to the Sun. Francois Arago, the secretary of the French Academy of Sciences, was eager to see if this new technology could be used to improve observations and recordings of the Sun’s appearance. He commissioned French physicists Hippolyte Fizeau and Leon Foucault for the task; Fizeau had already improved upon the daguerreotype process, reducing exposure times from a laborious 30 minutes. Fizeau and Foucault were successful, capturing the first photo of the Sun on April 2, 1845. The early image even showed sunspots and the solar limb, and kicked off the field of solar photography.
