rayzor, Rowbotham, Winship, Lady Blount are great historical references, however today we have at our disposal fresh material, such as FE Experiments' lighthouse seen in Spain over a distance of some 31 km.
Here is something much better for you to focus on: the solar eclipse of March 20, 1662 AD.
Believe it or not, there are no astronomical/historical records for this total solar eclipse (other than a brief mention by Cassini), by far what should have been the most important astronomical event of the millenium, a chance to settle once and for all the Gregorian calendar reform controversy.
The Jesuits in India/China, F. Verbiest, J. Schall von Bell, even the young N. Flamsteed fail to notice/record this most important of all the total solar eclipses.
We are told that G.D. Cassini published new tables of the sun, based on his observations at San Petronio in 1662: these observations are published in the Catalogue général des livres imprimés de la Bibliothèque Nationale, XXIV (Paris, 1905), cols. 678–682, or in the Table générale des maturès continuesdans l’Histoire et dans les Mémoires de l’Académic Royaledes Sciences, I–III (Paris, 1729–1734).
Here is Cassini's most celebrated work:
http://amshistorica.unibo.it/25 (italian/latin) (pg 28-30)
However, when the mathematicians of today examined the scientific/astronomical basis on which pontiff Gregory XIII based his decision to modify the Julian calendar, they discovered extraordinary errors: there was no way that anybody at that time could/would have modified the calendar by 10 days.