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I meant to write a blog on the astronomy topic for a while.  Today I have got to do it.   My three and a half year old son has a very strong passion and interest for astronomy.  The word strong may even be understated.  His interest started when he was about 33 months old when my husband bought a book called ‘what’s in the sky?’ by Ian Smith.   He loves it and from there on, his interest, his passion, his love and his knowledge on the topic just grows stronger and more each day!  He seems very certain that he wants to become an astronaut and goes to the moon and Mars.  Now almost 10 months later, he knows so much about solar system and his ambition (yes, ambition) for becoming astronaut is also getting very strong.

This morning (actually, Friday the 12th Jun 2009) we all watched Venus and Jupiter at 6:10am - still quite dark.   Luckily, the sky was clear this morning so we were able to witness the beautiful scene.   Venus was big and bright and so close - it seems it is just above the distant tall trees in the horizon.   Under the telescope, my husband said its shape is ‘gibeous’ - not so round or almost 3/4 round.  But Jupiter was quite small but very round.  We also saw two of Jupiter’s moons - must be two of Jupiter’s biggest moons!   We were so excited to see them!   It was freezing cold morning and yet my son was screaming with excitement.

Almost a year ago, I never knew that the sun is a star, the moon is a moon, and there is more than one moon in this universe.  But since I have to read to my son, I have also learned so much about the solar system and this has become our family hobby now.  Remember, my previous blog on ‘family fun day’?   Well, we have been to Sydney Observatory for about 10 times in the past 6 months!  My son never gets bored of going there.  We have been there last 3 consecutive weeks!  The back of the Sydney Observatory is with views to the Sydney Harbour and most of the times, we witness a wedding ceremony there - it is a beautiful and romantic place to exchange wedding vows!

Last school holiday, we went to Canberra space centre and naturally, my son was so delighted and running around like he knew the place so well.   He knows all the planets - he knows blackhole, astroid belt, kupier belt, nebula, names of the moons, names of space probes, hubble space telescope, etc.   He knows the layers (?) of the sun - from the core to corona - the outer layer of the sun!  In the past couple of weeks, he just spends most of his time drawing the solar system and space probes on paper!

His favourite planet is Jupiter with the great red spot.  He says that his father’s favourite planet is Saturn with the rings.  And he assumes my favourite planet is Uranus because I like diamonds and scientists think it rains diamonds in Uranus!

My son has many, many books on space and planets. They are not small books but they are large books for adult’s levels.   My friend gave them to him and of course, each time we go to Border’s bookshop or any book shops that got ‘planets’ book, he has to buy a book.  He will cry and will not let go of the books.   He only does this with the planets books and not other books.   No. He does not cry if we refuse to buy him a certain toy either.   But with planet books, he does.   So he has planet books, planet toys, planet DVDs, planet clothes, socks, underwear, plates, bowls, cups, nightgown, globes, school bags, and planets lights (see note*), and posters, etc, etc, etc.   Note* - He loves to go to Australian Geographic shop and buys those planetary things- like spinning light, planets models, globes, binocular, etc, etc, etc. He loves reading books on planets - even though he can’t read he still loves looking at the pictures and very fascinated by them all.

For a couple of months, he watched the Mars Rover clip on Youtube and he even sang part of the song from the clip - like ‘old man, can I see your face again…’ He loves to watch and lisen to the scientist talking about black hole, etc.  He does listen to the clips quite intensely.  If I talk to him he askes me to be quiet!  He loves to  Google and sees the spinning planets!  I am teaching him how to type the words for the planets and then he types them by himself.   He told me the other day that some of the earth images were spinning in the wrong direction!  Earth spins to the right with the exception of Venus spinning to the left and he told me that earth was spinning to the left and he said that’s wrong!

He is so sure that he wants to be an astroanut.   Naturally, we are very happy for him if this is what he wants to become when he grows up.   Even at my age sometimes, I am not sure what I want to do and if I have any passion left now.

So are there anyone like my little boy who is nut about being an astronaut?  I wonder if the real astronauts had this passion when they were young?  What ticks them being an astronaut?  At what age do they develop their passion?   How well do they have to be at academic level?   What do they need to study and be excel at?  Did they attend pivate school?  etc, etc, etc?   I really want to find out for my son.

I guess, I may have to ask the astranaut at NASA Space Centre or ask Mike at Twitter!