Kids All-Stars Sweatshirt

'All-Stars' of the Astral kind, that is...

From our average Sun to the giants like Antares and Betelgeuse and the behemoths like Mu Cephei and VY Canis Majoris, the little guy seems enamored by these amazing celestial entities. Star Life Cycle, Constellations, Galaxies, Nebulae aka Star Nurseries, even the terrible Black Hole, all seem to fascinate the kids, and all of us at home. And, my age-old Master's in Physics has nothing to do with it, I'm sure...

Anyway, a collective interest gripped us last month, leading us to undergo an organic crash course in Astrophysics 101 over the Winter Break.

Which led me to make this simple sweatshirt for Og, with Og, to serve as a warm extra layer for these cold winter months.

The 6 stars for the front - Sun/Sol, Rigel, Sirius, Vega, Pollux, Antares; and the 6 stars for the back - Spica, Arcturus, Aldebaran, Betelgeuse, Mu Cephei, VY Canis Majoris were his choice. They are not drawn to scale, but in roughly reasonable relative sizes, even if not in any order.

The stars, of course, determined their own colors (blue or red giant/super-giant) but the lettering colors were chosen by the 4 yo, and the lettering was done by me, and so was most of the painting. We might brush on  a layer of glow-in-the-dark paint later as he seems to want it badly.

A few tablespoons of acrylic paints, (and some bead paint for the lettering) et voilà, a custom shirt that the kid loves to wear! Getting him to pose for my camera with this all-stars shirt on was the tough part, but I managed to get at least one good one :)

And, we didn't stop at that. Plain pairs of socks got stars drawn on them as well (circular, not the generic star-shape) - with fabric markers! A pair sports blue giants, a pair showcases the red super-giants, a pair contrasts the smallish Sun with the largest known VY Canis Majoris.

His first choice was to have the Pillars of Creation painted on a black long-sleeved T-shirt... my skills being limited, I jumped to this second choice of All-stars shirt. With a name like that, Pillars of Creation evokes sheer power, mystery, and magic, thanks to the stunning image by the Hubble Telescope showcasing this area of star formation in the eagle nebula.