July 28, 1851: The first photo of a total eclipse

Today in the history of astronomy, a Prussian photographer captures totality.
By | Published: July 28, 2026

A grainy, black-and-white photograph shows a solid dark circle positioned slightly to the left of the center. A soft, hazy halo of light surrounds the circle, creating a high contrast against the dark, textured background. A few tiny, bright flares burst out along the right and upper-left edges of the central dark circle.
The first successful photograph of eclipse totality, seen here, was captured July 28, 1851, by Julius Berkowski. Credit: Julius Berkowski/Wikimedia Commons

The total solar eclipse of July 28, 1851 is important for two reasons. First, English amateur astronomer and author George F. Chambers wrote that it was the first that spawned dedicated eclipse expeditions. The path of totality stretched from what is today western Canada to Ukraine. European astronomers, however, targeted Norway and Sweden. Bergen, Norway, and Gothenburg, Sweden, both major cities, experienced 3 minutes 17 seconds of totality.

The second reason this event is notable is because during the 2 minutes 56 seconds the Moon obscured the Sun at the Royal Observatory in Königsberg, Prussia, a photographer named Johann Julius Berkowski took the first successful image of totality. He connected a camera that held a daguerreotype plate to a 2.4-inch refractor and made an 84-second exposure.

Michael E. Bakich is a contributing editor for Astronomy magazine. With degrees in astronomy and planetarium education, he has led many eclipse tours, published several books on observing, and logged thousands of hours at the eyepiece.

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