18 August 1868
New Moon, 0% lit
An element found on the Sun before Earth
During a total eclipse, astronomers saw a yellow line in the Sun's spectrum that matched nothing known. They named it after the Greek for sun.
Helium was catalogued as a solar curiosity for 27 years before anyone isolated it on Earth. It remains the only element discovered somewhere other than this planet, and it took the Moon covering the Sun to spot it.
- Date
- 18 August 1868
- Moon computed for
- 10:00 local time, UTC+5:22
- Phase
- New Moon
- Illuminated
- 0%
Source: Janssen & Lockyer, 1868; Royal Society