I tried using pinhole projection in 1970. No disk or partially covered disk.
I think I sneaked a few glances straight at the sun but it didn’t look different than other days. We were in the partial path.
My friend’s mother locked all eight of her children inside and pulled the shades. No children going blind there!
We (my wife, daughter and I) went up a few miles into central TN for the 2017 eclipse. Had a wonderful time (for a bunch of science nerds) at the combined stadium show and exhibits at Central TN State campus stadium. High up in the stands, good view, no clouds, nice exhibits by the local campus and NASA groups.
I’m working a few miles east of the totality border this year near Louisville KY. Plan on going west about 40 miles to see the show again. So I’ll get two total eclipses, two Venusian transits, a Mercury transit across the sun, the Jupiter-Saturn-Mars conjunction, the comet collision into Jupiter back in 1996, couple of regular comets, couple of new comets. Meteor shower while out west in the high Sierras. Not bad bunch of events.
/no supernova. Yet.