Neil deGrasse Tyson seems to have started to nitpicking anything that he tweets about. Last time, he was upset about everyone's use of the word "awesome." Now he is nitpicking a film for depicting the wrong phases of the moon.
Tyson is using his clout as a scientist to take on the film Chappaquiddick for depicting the wrong lunar phases.
Upset About The Moon Phases
Tyson took time on May 10 to tweet his criticism about the film Chappaquiddick. As one of the lead science communicators in the United States, it is his job to inform people about scientific inaccuracies that are being presented in popular culture, but now he's taken it to a new level. In his tweet, Tyson lets the filmmakers know that Senator Ted Kennedy would not have been able to see a full moon that day.
Tyson uses his scientific expertise to deduce that the moon that Kennedy is looking at in the film shouldn't be like that. He notices that the events of Chappaquiddick took place two days before the first moon landing on July 18, 1969. He says that instead of a full moon, the moon should've been depicted as a four-day-old waxing crescent.
He adds that the moon would have already set at the time of the events depicted in the movie, which happened at midnight. Tyson wraps the tweet with "I'm just saying."
Twitter Responds
Like anything that Tyson tweets out, it didn't take long for Twitter to react to what he had said about the film. The tweets use the usual tactic of poking fun at Tyson without actually being insulting. One person told Tyson that he is being "that guy," while another tells him that he used to be cool.
Another user tells Tyson that he should nitpick a lot of other movies that use phony science. The user includes Deep Impact and Armageddon to show examples of inaccuracies.
Others decided to use comedy to respond to Tyson's request for correct lunar phases. David Hayter tweeted that if the moon is a waxing crescent, then how were the scientists supposed to land on the moon?
Someone else took the tactic of dismissing Tyson for posting such a concern. This person said that he thought that the tweet originated from a parody account until he noticed the blue check next to Tyson's name.
Last time on Twitter, Tyson took on the phrase Save The Earth. He has also disproven the Flat Earth Theory.
