© The Royal Astronomical Society’s archive/BFIStill from restored footage of 1900 solar eclipse
The incredible footage was shot in North Carolina in 1900 by Nevil Maskelyne, a British magician-turned-filmmaker, who was taking part in a Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) expedition.
The footage from the RAS archives was exhaustively restored frame-by-frame to 4k quality.
Maskelyne had to build a special telescopic adapter to film the event (his second attempt - the first film from an 1898 expedition to India was stolen).
© Wikipedia / Carte de Visite WoodburytypeJohn Nevil Maskelyne
"Maskelyne wanted a novelty to show at his magic theatre - what better than the most impressive natural phenomenon of them all,"said Bryony Dixon, curator of silent film at the BFI.
Perfect eclipses occur because the size / distance between Earth and Moon vs Earth and Sun are proportional
The radius of the moon s 1737.1km - the radius of the Sun is 695,510km ... radio 1:400.408#
The average distance from Earth to the sun is 149,600,000km .. so for the perfect ration, the moon would have to 378,618km away
T he distance to the moon varies between 363,104km and 405,696km
The distance to the Sun varies between 147,100,000km and 152,000,000km
If the moon was at 363,104km at the time of an eclipse, the Sun would have to be 45,390,019km away to appear the same size - any further away and it would appear smaller
If the moon was at 405,696km at the time of an eclipse, the Sun would have to be 162,403,88km away to appear the same size - any nearer and it would appear bigger
One would have expected photographic evidence of this to exist