Figure v1 – First photograph of the sun taken April 2, 1845. In the public domain in the United States because of its age.

My discussion about Mars yesterday got me looking for the first photograph ever taken of Mars, meaning from an Earth-based telescope, and so far I have been unable to find it. I did however, find the first photograph extant of someone “flipping the bird.” I also found the first photograph ever taken of the sun, shown in Figure 1. In the Geek Zone this daguerreotype is likely to bring shivers because of who took the photograph. It was taken on Apron 2 1845 by legendary, French physicists Louis Fizeau and Leon Foucault made the first successful photographs of the sun on April 2, 1845. The original image, taken with an exposure of 1/60th of a second, was about 4.7 inches (12 centimeters) in diameter. Not only does it capture several sunspots but you can see their structure and also the rice-like texture of the solar surface, when seen through a moderate sized telescope.