GOLDEN — Students at the Colorado School of Mines camped out overnight to snag tickets and swarmed the student recreation center several hours early on Wednesday to claim good seats for the Beyonce of astrophysicists: Neil deGrasse Tyson.
They seemed to think the wait was worth it.
Tyson — known for accomplishments like being the fifth head of the Hayden Planetarium in New York, receiving the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal, hosting several science-based podcasts and television series and interacting with his more than 4 million Twitter follows — was speaking to students as a part of the college’s President’s Distinguished Lecture series.
Surveying the room of bright-eyed Mines students, faculty and alumni, Tyson said “This has got to be the geekiest audience.”
The lecture focused on bizarre astronomical findings, but Tyson started off encouraging the many scientists in the room.
He touted the documentary series he hosted — “Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey” on Fox — as a good sign for the futures of the folks listening.
“This is evidence that science is mainstreaming,” he said, to a roaring cheer.
The cheers kept on coming as Tyson incorporated humor into detailed discussions of his astronomical knowledge.
Tyson dove into a lecture about how Earth and the universe were conspiring to kill us, citing natural disasters and other hazards.
Met with an uproar of laughter, Tyson talked about being an “accessory” in Pluto’s planetary demise.
“Get over it,” he said, to the delight of viewers.
Earlier, students lined up before the show to see Tyson.
“I would say he is probably the first person of this caliber that we’ve had at Mines,” said Mines spokeswoman Karen Gilbert. “The excitement level is pretty palpable.”
Freshman Katie Kowalchick sat with a group of her friends near the front of the line.
The group came prepared with a giant platter of chicken fingers and a video game system they hooked up to play while they waited.
“He’s not only intelligent, but he has a sense of humor,” Kowalchick said.
Kelsey Kopecky showed up nearly five hours early to get a prime seat in the auditorium.
“He’s the big name that’s going to influence kids to getting into science,” she said.
The school distributed 2,438 tickets to the Mines community for free, Gilbert said, but many students who didn’t get theirs in time took the matter into their own hands.
Students’ Facebook pages were filled with posts from their peers begging for event tickets with offers hovering in the $50 to $100 range.
Elizabeth Hernandez: 303-954-1223, ehernandez@denverpost.com or
