You can make a hole with your fingers and see the patterns of very bright lights above you, stadium lights etc. It's just a vertical camera obscura. I remember the 90s solar partial eclipse really well because I was riding home from school, the leaves and even the spokes on my bike projected moons everywhere, it was completely magical.

I'm having a hard time understanding this. How many hands do you have? How can you use 2 hands to create this effect and still hold a camera?

But the distance and relative size between our moon and star is so unique that even on a Galaxy scale that would be the number one touristic event.

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2024/04/total-solar-eclipse-earth-universe-unique/677937/

You can glance at the sun but don't stare at it. Even when it's only 1% visible, it's putting out enough light to strain or damage your eyes.

Though it's fine to look at the eclipse with naked eyes when it's total. You can't really see the cool effect surrounding the moon during totality with the eclipse glasses on because it's way dimmer than the sun usually is.

Your eyes will tell you if it's safe to look. If it's uncomfortably bright, then you shouldn't power through that discomfort (and that applies to things other than the sun). If it feels like looking at anything else, then it's probably fine.

I witnessed a partial one, with eclipse glasses. Still I didn't have the time or observational talent to notice the effect on the shadows

I witnessed a partial eclipse, didn't notice the shadow effect. I might pay attention next time...

Pinholes diffract light.

The diffraction effects from a pinhole camera are not what make them work. In fact, diffraction makes the photographs worse than they otherwise would be. The pinhole makes an effective aperture for photography because it's small size produces small circles of confusion on the film plane. Ideally, you would make the hole as small as possible, but beyond a certain (small) size, defraction becomes the dominant source of blurring. So the size of the pinhole should be chosen to yield the best balance between geometric blur and diffraction blur.

The diffraction is merely a limit to the smallness of the aperture, and not what creates the image.

in the house i grew up in, when the blinds were down in my window i would have a camera obscura for like half an hour each day. it made sick days more tolerable.

Oh i was just the mechanic

Strictly speaking, it's not required, but I get your point.

In any case, you can evaluate the relative sizes, which is cool enough ! (⚠️ nerd alert ⚠️)