While the name Nevil Maskelyne (1863-1924) almost immediately conjures up the image of a talented British magician, his role as an inventor and scientist is too often forgotten. Studying electromagnetic waves in depth for wireless telegraphy and military uses, he seemed to be an indefatigable jack-of-all-trades who, in 1900, decided to add a new string to his bow: he became keenly interested in astronomy.
Nevil Maskelyne (public domain)
It's important to remember that his interest in science greatly served his magic, much like other illustrious illusionists such as Robert-Houdin with electricity. There's no doubt that if Nevil Maskelyne found an application for his discoveries in magic, he would quickly add it to his repertoire. But on this day, May 28, 1900, it was the magician's turn to be amazed; Nevil Maskelyne himself took the place of the audience to observe a performance lasting only about 2 minutes, yet one of the most beautiful in the world: when the Sun progressively disappeared before his eyes.
Nevil Maskelyne knew the trick. He knew it was the Moon responsible for this disappearance, and the magician was so prepared to see this illusion that he brought equipment to film it. On May 28, 1900, Maskelyne was in North Carolina, witnessing the magnificent spectacle of a total solar eclipse, a phenomenon he carefully recorded. Luck finally smiled upon him, after he had tried to film an eclipse two years earlier in India but had his film stolen. This new recording miraculously survived thanks to its preservation at the Royal Astronomical Society, which only recently rediscovered it in its archives. This was followed by frame-by-frame restoration before the whole was assembled to bring to life the Moon obscuring the Sun. The result is a 1 minute 08 second video, which the Royal Astronomical Society decided to release and which is now available on YouTube.
Thus, Nevil Maskelyne appears to be the first to have the idea of filming this type of astronomical phenomenon, making him a pioneer in a new field: cinema. And how can one not draw a parallel between this first film of the moon hiding the sun and Georges Méliès' film A Trip to the Moon, which appeared just two years later?
