The world will get a little darker today as a total solar eclipse sweeps across parts of Greenland, Iceland and Spain. (A partial eclipse will be visible across parts of the northern US from Alaska to North Carolina, notes NASA.) If you're planning to make some photographs of the celestial event, you might be interested in knowing that the first successful image of a total solar eclipse was taken on July 28, 1851 by a little known Prussian photographer named Johann Julius Friedrich Berkowski. His daguerreotype is still revealing "the mysteries of the sun," noted Smithsonian recently.

     Wednesday, August 12-Sunday, August 16: Puppet Fringe Festival at The Clemente The 4th International Puppet Fringe Festival hits Manhattan with a sprawling, five-day low-tech takeover that defies the dusty constraints of traditional performance, leaning heavily into tactile storytelling, cardboard surrealism, and a timely showcase dedicated this year to Women in Puppetry. This multi-disciplinary gathering of 100+ international makers captures the creative en...