2-995-757 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Eclipse of the Sun on July 18 in Spain - luminous corona as seen round the Moon - from a sketch by our special artist, 1860. '...in a moment afterwards the sun had disappeared, and the moon had taken its place - not altogether with equal brilliancy, nor yet with total blackness: it appeared as a dark grey circle on the sky, resembling a patch of dark velvet from the apparent softness of its surface. And now sprang out the corona in all its splendour. It had been seen before, but nothing in comparison to what it now was. Mr. Wray had perceived flashes of it in the dark intervals which occurred between the "Baily Beads;" but when these had disappeared the corona was a perfect circle of nebulous matter'. From "Illustrated London News", 1860.