First picture of the Sun
Photographer: Léon Foucault & Hippolyte Fizeau
Date: April 2, 1845
Location: Paris Observatory, Paris, France
French physicists Léon Foucault and Hippolyte Fizeau — better known for Foucault's pendulum experiment and Fizeau's measurement of the speed of light — created the first known photograph of the Sun on April 2, 1845, using a daguerreotype exposed for 1/60th of a second through a telescope at the Paris Observatory. The image, approximately 5 inches in diameter, clearly shows sunspots on the solar disk. It opened the field of solar photography, which would later be crucial for studying sunspots, solar flares, and the solar corona during eclipses. The original daguerreotype is preserved at the Paris Observatory.
← Explore all photos on the map
