A rare photograph captures the solar eclipse of May 26, 1854, taken by observers at the United States Military Academy at West Point. This particular astronomical event was an annular eclipse, which leaves a brilliant ring of fire visible around the silhouette of the moon. Daguerreotypists at the academy had to use experimental chemistry and highly customized glass filters to prevent the intense solar rays from instantly burning through their photographic plates, producing one of the earliest successful scientific sequences of the moon blotting out the sun. Photograph via LOC, no known restrictions