f68r: eclipse from 1419?

[denty]

I'm not even sure what method they would use to observe partial eclipses, was camera obscura known in Europe at the time?

During a partial eclipse the shadows of trees become quite remarkable: the white spots created by small gaps between leaves become crescent-shaped instead of circular.  

If that was not enough by itself, it should have inspired many to build their camera oscura.   All they needed was a small hole on the roof and a piece of paper on the floor.

I use a smaller device, a shoebox with the lid on, many have a little corner tab for airflow that you can pull off and look through, just make a pinhole on the other side (the part not obscured by your head when putting your eye/camera to the hole).

I also read in Wikipedia that Aristotle spoke of the leaves and of using a camera obscura

Aristotle is also thought to have used camera obscura for observing solar eclipses.[18] The formation of pinhole images is touched upon as a subject in the work Problems – Book XV, asking:

Why is it that when the sun passes through quadri-laterals, as for instance in wickerwork, it does not produce a figure rectangular in shape but circular?

and further on:

Why is it that an eclipse of the sun, if one looks at it through a sieve or through leaves, such as a plane-tree or other broadleaved tree, or if one joins the fingers of one hand over the fingers of the other, the rays are crescent-shaped where they reach the earth? Is it for the same reason as that when light shines through a rectangular peep-hole, it appears circular in the form of a cone?