The first observation of light deflection was performed by noting the change in position of stars as they passed near the Sun on the celestial sphere . The observations were performed by Arthur Eddington and his collaborators ( see Eddington experiment ) during the total solar eclipse of May 29 , 1919 , when the stars near the Sun ( at that time in the constellation Taurus ) could be observed . Observations were made simultaneously in the cities of Sobral , Ceará , Brazil and in São Tomé and Príncipe on the west coast of Africa . The result was considered spectacular news and made the front page of most major newspapers . It made Einstein and his theory of general relativity world-famous . When asked by his assistant what his reaction would have been if general relativity had not been confirmed by Eddington and Dyson in 1919 , Einstein famously made the quip : " Then I would feel sorry for the dear Lord . The theory is correct anyway . " The early accuracy , however , was poor . The results were argued by some to have been plagued by systematic error and possibly confirmation bias , although modern reanalysis of the dataset suggests that Eddington 's analysis was accurate . The measurement was repeated by a team from the Lick Observatory in the 1922 eclipse , with results that agreed with the 1919 results and has been repeated several times since , most notably in 1953 by Yerkes Observatory astronomers and in 1973 by a team from the University of Texas . Considerable uncertainty remained in these measurements for almost fifty years , until observations started being made at radio frequencies . While the Sun is too close by for an Einstein ring to lie outside its corona , such a ring formed by the deflection of light from distant galaxies has been observed for a nearby star
1922 eclipse
Solar eclipse of September 21, 1922
Tests of general relativity