We missed the formal presentaion at the World Science Festival stargazing event last night, and it was cloudy enough to prevent actual stargazing, but the giant mock-up of the James Webb Space Telescope is giant and cool even in the dark. More importantly, Neil deGrasse Tyson is awesome. We got there around 9:30, and he was taking questions from an informal group of people having around where the presentation had been. When we left at 11pm, he was still going strong. More amazingly, I don’t recall seeing him drink anything.
He may be a robot. A really awesome robot who is amazingly generous with his time.
Of course, the real point of my being down here is related to How to Teach Physics to Your Dog. Specifically, the fact that I will be signing How to Teach Physics to Your Dog tomorrow afternoon at 1:30 pm as part of the Authors Alley program at the World Science Festival Street Fair. Even if you don’t want to have a book signed, they have lots of cool stuff planned.
The atmosphere in Battery Park last night was pleasantly, well, festive. There were dozens of people there with telescopes, and many more milling about, looking at science stuff, and peppering Neil deGrasse Tyson with all sorts of questions, from incomprehensible things about bubble universes to “Where did you get that hat?” Since that was late at night in Battery Park, I’m looking forward to seeing what the crowd will be like in the middle of the day in a more central art of the city.