The NBC Nightly News anchor was clearly emotional as a solar eclipse viewer shared memories of his late mother.
Veteran news anchor Lester Holt had a total eclipse of the heart on Monday while doing live coverage of the solar eclipse. The 65-year-old NBC Nightly News anchor was interviewing an unnamed man at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway about the personal meaning behind the eclipse.
"My mom always promised me a trip to the moon, so this is as close as we get," the visibly emotional man shared.
Holt asked the man when his mother died, and he replied, "Two years December, 1969 watching the first moon landing together, she made it an event that we would never forget. This is to her."
"She's with you today," Holt assured the man, patting his back.
Holt was clearly choked up, admitting to the camera, "Listen, I'm caught up in the emotion too. You go into this. You don't know what to expect, thinking, 'Well, it's just going to be nighttime for a few minutes.' Yeah, kinda, but not really."
The solar eclipse took place on Monday with people all over the world heading out in droves to see the planetary phenomenon.
Bill Nye (the science guy) spoke with ET about the historic event from the Planetary Society Eclipse-O-Rama in Fredericksburg, Texas.
"I'm very hopeful that everybody -- could be as many as 40 million of us -- could be with other citizens of Earth and have a shared experience," he shared with ET. "It's really remarkable! So, look at the sky with your protective glasses for a little bit and then look around where you are. In my experience, people at first [become] very quiet when it starts to go to totality, completely dark. And then people start cheering because it's just such a remarkable event."
Monday's solar eclipse was the natural phenomenon in which the moon's position between the Earth and sun casts a shadow on North America. That shadow, or umbra, traveled along the surface from west to east at more than 1,500 miles per hour along the path of totality.
For more from ET's exclusive interview with Bill Nye, watch the clip below.
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