Prominent astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has a suggestion for anyone with a view of next week's solar eclipse: Put down your smartphone and take in the phenomenon yourself.
"Experience this one emotionally, psychologically, physically," Tyson told an audience at the American Museum of Natural History on Monday.
The August 21 event will be the first total solar eclipse in 99 years to cross a coast-to-coast swath of the United States. A total solar eclipse happens when the moon passes between the earth and the sun, completely blocking out the sunlight.
Tyson, the director of the museum's Hayden Planetarium and host of the podcast "StarTalk," said missing the eclipse "would be to not live as full a life as you could have" - and having a video of it doesn't match watching it happen.
"I get it - you want to look at it later. But then you would not have experienced it in the moment," said Tyson, who also has appeared on the CBS sitcom "The Big Bang Theory."
