Elizabeth Beckley 1846 - 1927

occupation:
Astronomical photographer

Astronomical photographer who took photographs of the Sun at Kew Observatory near London in the 1860s and '70s, using the Kew Photoheliograph. Warren de la Rue, who designed the Photoheliograph, claimed that solar photography "seems to be a work peculiarly fitting to a lady. During the day she watches for opportunities for photographing the Sun with that patience for which the sex is distinguished, and she never lets an opportunity escape her. It is extraordinary that even on very cloudy days, between gaps of cloud, when it would be imagined that it was almost impossible to get a photograph, yet there is always a record at Kew."