Total solar eclipse, 1883. Photograph of the total solar eclipse seen on 6 May 1883. The disc of the Moon (black) is completely covering the disc of the Sun so that only the Sun's corona (atmosphere, white) is visible. Total solar eclipses usually occur less than once a year, and can only be seen from a small area of the Earth's surface. Photographed by British astronomers H. A. Lawrence and C. R. Woods from Caroline Island during an eclipse expedition to this remote coral atoll in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.