  This Date in Science: Baily's Beads Discovered  By: Earth Sky
By: Earth Sky   It was an annular eclipse – nowadays often
called a ring of fire eclipse – meaning that the moon was too
far away in its monthly orbit around Earth to appear large
enough in our sky to cover the sun completely. At mid-eclipse,
Baily saw beads of light shining around the darkened moon. They
resembled beads on a string. Later, it was realized that these
beads of light appeared due to the presence of mountains, crater
walls and other topographic features extending above the limb,
or edge, of the moon as seen from Earth.  This phenomenon, which
can be seen during both annular and total eclipses, is now known
as Baily’s Beads.