Famed astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson is urging skygazers to put down their phones during Monday’s total solar eclipse.
During an appearance last week at the American Museum of Natural History, Tyson said eclipse watchers should take in the rare and short-lived phenomenon without the distraction of their devices.
“Experience this one emotionally, psychologically, physically,” Tyson said, according to the Associated Press. “I get it — you want to look at it later. But then you would not have experienced it in the moment.”
NEXT: Watch the Whole Total Solar Eclipse in 4 Minutes
Tyson, the head of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City, said missing the moment “would be to not live as full a life as you could have.” And watching a video later is not the same as truly experiencing it, he added.
The eclipse will bring sudden darkness to parts of 14 states within its path of totality. Oregon will be the first to witness the phenomenon at 10:16 a.m. PST and South Carolina will be the last about 2:44 p.m. EDT.
- How to Help Victims of the Texas School Shooting
- TIME's 100 Most Influential People of 2022
- What the Buffalo Tragedy Has to Do With the Effort to Overturn Roe
- Column: The U.S. Failed Miserably on COVID-19. Canada Shows It Didn't Have to Be That Way
- N.Y. Will Soon Require Businesses to Post Salaries in Job Listings. Here's What Happened When Colorado Did It
- The 46 Most Anticipated Movies of Summer 2022
- ‘We Are in a Moment of Reckoning.’ Amanda Nguyen on Taking the Fight for Sexual Violence Survivors to the U.N.