Great Moments in the History of Solar Physics

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Chronological menu	First of the First	Sun and Cosmos	Solar Activity	Instrumental breakthroughs	Physical breakthroughs
1223 BC Oldest eclipse record
800 BC First plausible recorded sunspot observation
ca. 350 BC Sun circling under a sheltering ski
ca. 250 BC The distance to the Sun
968 First mention of the solar corona
1128 First sunspot drawing
1185 First description of solar prominences
1543 The Sun moves to center stage
1609 The Sun in focus
1610 First telescopic observation of sunspots
1644 The Sun as a star
1645-1715 Sunspots vanish
1687 The mass of the sun
1774-1801 Physical nature of sunspots
1796 The nebular hypothesis
1800 The Sun's invisible radiation
1802 Black lines in the Sun
1817 Solar spectroscopy is born
1838 The solar constant
1843 The sunspot cycle
1845 The first solar photograph
1848 The sunspot number
1852 The sunspot cycle is linked to geomagnetic activity
1858-1859 The solar differential rotation
1859 The chemical compostion of the Sun
1859 First observation of a solar flare
1860 First observations of a coronal mass ejection
1881 The solar constant, again
1908 The magnetic nature of sunspots
1919 The Sun's magnetic cycle
1931 The coronograph

 

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