On This Day

By Princessa


Edmund Halley, an English astronomer, observed a phenomenon associated with a total eclipse. During an eclipse, as the moon covers the last section of the sun, the photosphere shines between the mountains on the moon's surface, creating an effect like a chain of bright pearls around the edge of the moon. This is now called 'Baily's Beads' after the British astronomer Francis Baily, who described the phenomenon after observing it during an eclipse in 1836.