As a teenager at New York City's prestigious Bronx High School of Science, Neil de Grasse Tyson had a surefire strategy for romancing girls: He'd grab his telescope, bring his date to the roof of the nearby apartment building where he lived with his family and promise her the stars. "Rooftops are ideal for exploring both kinds of heavenly bodies," says Tyson, 42, who later went on to perfect his technique at Harvard. He has since expanded his orbit to include Manhattan's Hayden Planetarium, where he's been director since 1995, and Princeton, where he's a visiting professor of astrophysics. As passionate about earthly pleasures as those celestial, the 6'2" Tyson indulges his love of wine and gourmet cooking while succumbing to the gravitational pull of his wife of 12 years, mathematical physics Ph.D. Alice Young, 44, who is expecting their second child next month. Oh, sure, says Young, Tyson tried the ol' stargazing trick on her too. But the rooftop Romeo had met his match. "I'd already taken astrophysics," she says, "so it wasn't exotic for me."
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