After the war , Eddington travelled to the island of Príncipe off the west coast of Africa to watch the solar eclipse of 29 May 1919 . During the eclipse , he took pictures of the stars ( several stars in the Hyades cluster include Kappa Tauri of the constellation Taurus ) in the region around the Sun . According to the theory of general relativity , stars with light rays that passed near the Sun would appear to have been slightly shifted because their light had been curved by its gravitational field . This effect is noticeable only during eclipses , since otherwise the Sun 's brightness obscures the affected stars . Eddington showed that Newtonian gravitation could be interpreted to predict half the shift predicted by Einstein
solar eclipse of 29 May 1919
Solar eclipse of May 29, 1919
Arthur Eddington