"I'm very strict with my family," he says. "I keep them all in their places. ... I've tied them to me by an invisible force."

Sol is the narrator of "Sol & Company," a show for preschoolers at the Morehead Planetarium on the campus of UNC-Chapel Hill. The incredible force he's referring to is gravity.

And those relatives he's so tight with? The planets.

"Sol & Company" debuted at Gibbes Planetarium in Columbia, S.C., years ago. That planetarium closed in the 1990s and the rights to the show became a no-man's land. Planetariums across the country have taken the core elements of the show -- namely Sol and his solar system -- and tweaked the writing to fit their own audiences.

"The original script was pretty much lost to the cosmos," said Karen Kornegay, the planetarium's public relations manager.

Morehead's version lasts about half an hour in the chilly Star Theater.

Bring a sweater; we wish we had. The theater is chilly to keep the Zeiss star projector kink-free. It's a pretty temperamental machine, one of only five still operating in the United States.

Within seconds after the lights dim, the Zeiss -- which Sol describes as a "huge mechanical mosquito, or maybe a spaceship" -- transformed the room from a domed theater into a glittering night sky. Sol, a rotund cartoonish sun, explains the solar system -- rotations, orbits and the like -- in easy-to-understand dialogue.

"I just happen to have a picture of us from our family photo album," Sol says. "The big one is ME -- I'm the head of the family. Next to me is little Mercury... then Venus... and the Earth -- they're the only girl planets in my family -- next is Mars... then Jupiter, the giant... and further out still is Saturn, the one with the big beautiful rings. There are other children called Uranus, Neptune and the baby, Pluto, but they are very, very far away from me."

The show, fast-paced and full of facts, is a retrospective of space exploration in our day but on a level kids can absorb. In explaining orbits, Sol tells the audience that they'd celebrate 84 birthdays before Uranus could orbit the sun once.

My son loved the catchy jingle that punctuated the show. In no time at all, he was singing along.

You can get your kids in the mood ahead of time by going online. Last year, the planetarium put the lyrics and an MP3 recording of the production's "Family of the Sun" song on its Web site.

Have a sing-along at home by going to www.moreheadplanetarium.org. Under the Visitor Guide menu, scroll down to "Shows/showtimes" and click on "Sol & Company." Click on the "downloadable lyrics" link on the right side of the page.

Although the planetarium changes many of its offerings every few months, "Sol" has been playing for at least eight years. It doesn't often stray from the schedule. Part of that is because it's popular. And part is because there just aren't that many planetarium productions for preschoolers. It's expensive to produce a planetarium show, upwards of $100,000, and Morehead relies heavily on private support for show production, Kornegay said.

But most private supporters want to show content that is directly tied to formal K-12 academic standards. Since there are no standards for preschoolers, corporations are more hesitant to underwrite shows for the under-5 set.

"We think it's very important for kids to be introduced to science at a young age," Kornegay said. "It's been a real challenge."

Until that challenge is overcome, you might say, the show is golden.

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