One of the delightful consequences of my renewed interest in astronomy has been the discovery of our son Garrett's surprising aptitude for the subject.  I was amazed when, at two years of age, he learned to identify the various phases of the moon: crescent, gibbous, full moon, first quarter, last quarter.  My amazement continued when, at three years of age, he learned the names of all nine of the planets of our solar system in sequential order.

Here are some of the highlights of Garrett's astronomy activities:

• When Garrett was 1 year old, Amy submitted his name to NASA to be recorded on a CD and taken into space on one of the Mars Rover missions.

• At age 2 he learned the phases of the moon.  In the evening I would take him out on our balcony and ask him, "Where is the moon?"  He would point to it.  Then I would say, "What kind of a moon is it?"  He would say "cress moon" (for crescent moon), "gibbous moon", "fus kwa moon" (first quarter) or "full moon!" which he always said very excitedly.  It was less common for him to have the opportunity to observe a last quarter moon, since these can be seen only in the morning before sunrise, but I think I did get him out of bed one morning to point one out to him.  And it was not until the recent lunar eclipse (see below) that I had occasion to explain a "new moon" to him.

• In December 2002 he went to Circular Quay with Amy, where the two of them viewed the solar eclipse standing near the Sydney Opera House.  About a month before that, he went with me on one of my trips to scout out a good viewing location.

• The week after Garrett's third birthday, we went to the Sydney Observatory for a Mars exhibit the day after the Red Planet's closest approach to Earth in 60,000 years.  Garrett had his first look through a telescope at the observatory -- though I'm not sure whether he understood what he was looking at.

• A few months ago Garrett said that he wants his next birthday cake decorated with the moon and stars.

• In March this year at playgroup, Garrett made a play "telescope" (out of colored cellophane, an empty toilet paper roll and a popsicle stick), and now in the evening he often asks to go out and look at the planets through his "telescope."

• He can name all nine planets in order on his wall chart.

• At meals he sometimes asks for nine grapes, then lines them up and gives each one a name as if it were one of the planets.

• Earlier this month (on the 5th of May) Garrett woke up at 5 am to watch a lunar eclipse with us.  The previous night at dinner, I explained to Garrett what a lunar eclipse is and asked him if he wanted to get up early in the morning to watch one.  He said yes.  When I went into his room about 5 am, I asked if he still wanted to get up and look at the moon.  He said yes and got right out of bed.  It took about an hour from the time the eclipse started until the Earth's shadow covered the entire face of the full moon.  Then the moon set before the shadow receded from the other side.  Toward the end, when there was still just a thin sliver of light remaining on the edge of the moon, a slight reddish-orange color could be observed, which remained even after the moon went completely dark.  Garrett stayed up watching the whole time, while Amy and I took a few photos.  As soon as it was over, he went back to bed.

• When we go out on our balcony in the evening, Garrett is usually able to point out the planets and identify them by himself.  (Right now Venus, Jupiter and Saturn are visible in the evening.)

In the photo at the top of the page, Garrett is standing in front of his wall chart of the planets, holding his play "telescope" in his left hand.  The blue mug in his right hand shows Saturn and some other planets and stars on it.

The story of Garrett's naming all nine of the planets in order is particularly amazing.  Here is how it happened.

From the time Garrett was about six or eight months old, I had a "night-night" routine that I did with him to put him to bed.  I would carry him around through all the rooms in our home, pointing out various things to him.  The routine ended at his crib, where I would sing a "night-night" song to him, lay him down, pray and make the sign of the cross over him.  We found that this routine helped him to settle down and fall asleep at the end of the day.  At some point (perhaps it was when Garrett moved out of our bedroom into his own room, or perhaps it was after Samuel was born), I quit doing the "tour" part of the routine and just sang and prayed over him at bedtime.

With Samuel I did not start a "night-night" routine until he was about a year old.  By that time, of course, the arrangement of some of the things in our home had changed, so the routine I now use for Samuel is somewhat different from Garrett's original routine.

For example, last year Amy bought a set of glow-in-the-dark stars and planets that could be stuck up on the wall or ceiling.  On Garrett's ceiling over his bed, I put five of the stars arranged in the shape of the Southern Cross, and on the wall beside his bed I put up all the planets in a row.  I also printed a label with the number and name of each planet: "1. Mercury", "2. Venus", and so on.  (You can read some of these labels if you click on the photo at the top of the page for an enlarged view.)  These stars and planets were not part of Garrett's "night-night" routine when he was a baby, because we did not have them at that time.  But with Samuel, part of the "night-night" routine as I go through the boys' room is that I point out the stars of the Southern Cross on the ceiling, and I point to each of the planets on the wall and say its name.

Sometime after I started doing this new "night-night" routine with Samuel, Garrett decided that he wanted to do a "night-night" routine with his baby doll.  At first he did his baby doll's "night-night" routine separately, usually a few minutes before I did Samuel's routine.  Then one night Garrett was about to start his baby doll's "night-night" routine at about the same time I was getting ready to put Samuel to bed, so I told Garrett he could do his "night-night" routine with the baby doll while Samuel and I followed and listened.  I smiled as we went along, because a lot of the routine he said word for word the way I did it with Samuel.

When we got to the boys' room, Garrett got up on his bed so he could point to the planets on the wall.  I was absolutely astounded when he said the name of every planet in order perfectly!  The only one he hesitated at briefly was Uranus.  He's just starting to read a few short words (like "cat" and "sat"), so I was even more amazed when he looked carefully at the label below the planet, said "loo-ranus" and then continued on with Neptune and Pluto.

He finished by saying, "Pluto is the farthest planet away from the sun," (then, pointing back to the Earth), "and Earth is the special planet God created for us to live on."

I was so astonished by this that I called out to Amy in the next room, "He just said all of the planets in order by himself!"  Another night I recorded him saying the names of the planets during the "night-night" routine.

It was after this that Garrett also started naming his grapes after the planets.