Morning Vid: Astrophysicist Explains Eclipse Using Basketball, Grapefruit, Tie

Caitlin Dickson Dec 21, 2010
In case you fell asleep early last night or just plain forgot about the lunar eclipse, the Today Show's recap of last night's natural phenomenon has you covered. Matt Lauer is joined on set by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson who explains how an eclipse actually works using a basketball, a grapefruit, and his own illustrative tie. Lauer reads one of Tyson's tweets from last night in which he describes the event as "the slowest, most boring of celestial spectacles." Tyson said the entire event took about 3 hours to complete, but even he fell asleep after half an hour. Luckily, the recap is much more interesting, with Tyson doing his level best to explain seventh-grade science to poor Lauer--with middling results.

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