Neil deGrasse Tyson

We'd still be in the caves if that's how we functioned as scientists.

The German poet Rainer Maria Rilke in his book Letters to a Young Poet,

I hope I don't mangle this too badly.

One of the poems ends, be patient with all that stirs within your heart.

Learn to love the questions themselves.

Just to clarify, the eclipse itself is not what Eddington looked at.

He needed the eclipse to darken the sky to see starlight from far away in the universe, but

It's path moving to the side of the sun.

The sun is the most massive thing we have available to us.

So if gravity is going to distort the fabric of space and time, the sun is our best chance at this.

So he waits for the eclipse.

Perfectly said, Neil.

Yeah, and then the starlight comes across very near the edge of the sun.

He measures where it is with great accuracy, then waits six months till the sun is on the other side of the sky, goes back to that same area, and measures where the stars are on his frame.

And they had all moved in the presence of the sun.

having their path lengths go by the limb of the sun relative to six months ago.

So that whole project took six months to confirm.

And there was an eclipse in 1918 that he really wanted to use, but the world was still at war.

And so that was a lost opportunity.

It was delayed until 2019.