See the 3 answer words debuted by Neil deGrasse Tyson.
S | P | A | Y | A | S | A | P | A | M | B | E | R | ||
M | U | L | E | I | T | S | A | L | A | U | R | A | ||
I | M | O | N | R | U | B | Y | L | O | G | A | N | ||
L | I | T | T | L | E | D | I | P | P | E | R | |||
E | C | O | L | I | G | A | S | G | I | A | N | T | ||
D | E | F | B | E | G | L | I | E | F | O | E | |||
F | R | A | M | E | B | A | R | N | ||||||
S | T | A | R | C | L | U | S | T | E | R | ||||
F | O | O | D | K | N | E | A | D | ||||||
O | W | L | T | A | I | O | W | N | H | O | P | |||
R | E | D | D | W | A | R | F | G | O | O | D | S | ||
H | E | A | V | E | N | L | Y | B | O | D | Y | |||
A | L | G | A | E | I | T | O | O | A | V | E | C | ||
D | O | U | B | T | N | A | P | S | M | E | S | H | ||
Z | U | N | I | S | G | L | E | E | A | S | T | O |
★ Neil deGrasse Tyson! Fanboy SQUEEEE! (Sorry for breaking your eardrums.)
Huge fan of Tyson's — Jill and I watched all of his "Cosmos" remakes. In a time when science gets dismissed by all too many people, I love Tyson's efforts to educate and make change with humor. What a pleasure to get an amusing astronomy theme from him and Acme.
I had heard HEAVENLY BODIES before, in this [Total hottie?] sense, but the others felt fairly fresh. I particularly liked the more esoteric terms like STAR CLUSTER and GAS GIANT, showing off Tyson's depth in astronomy.
Did you understand the clue for RED DWARF? [Bashful?] refers to Bashful, one of the Seven Dwarfs — the one who frequently turns red. Concise, amusing, spot-on. Perfect!
There were a few rough aspects to the grid — the north, in particular, felt clunky. AIRE (suffix), ITSA (partial), AS BIG (quasi-partial) all in one area is not good. Adding a cheater square up there, perhaps at the A of AIRE, might have helped, while still allowing for PAYPAL. The overlap of LITTLE DIPPER and GAS GIANT does make things slightly tricky, but a section that unconstrained ought to be smoother, especially when it's so close to where most solvers start a puzzle.
At 80 words, this is over Will's usual max of 78. I don't mind that, if I get some nice bonuses in the fill. But aside from PAYPAL, there was only PUMICE, TWEETS, PSYCHO that added to the quality of my solve — not enough for my taste. No doubt that the grid construction is challenging, especially with five themers and a central 11-letter entry splitting up the puzzle, but I would have liked to see what happened if the three black squares after KNEAD were removed, allowing for a long down answer where AFAR and HOOVES are right now. Would have required moving around a ton of black squares, but even getting a single pair of great bonus entries can add so much.
That all said, when a theme shines, I don't mind grid flaws nearly as much. So happy to get this concept that's so appropriate to Tyson. Well done to Acme for bringing him into the NYT constructors' fold!