An origami sundial, umbrellas printed with the solar system, models of stars, beach balls decorated with constellations and a collection of star-shaped earrings are among the many toys in Lee Anne Willson’s classroom, office and home.

Willson, a professor of astronomy and physics, said she thinks “most scientists are people who didn’t entirely give up playing with toys.”

“Early on my family discovered that if they got me something shaped like a star, I’d probably like it,” she said.

At 13, Willson said she discovered the science-fiction section of the library and started dreaming of how she would like to be an astronaut.

Later, she said she decided that was an unlikely career for a woman and started telling people she wanted to be an astronomer.

“With hindsight, I think it’s more fun actually,” Willson said.

She said she would like to travel in space and view the Earth from above, but she said her desire to travel in the stars isn’t great enough that she would give up her current job. Willson said being a professor is more creative and independent than being an astronaut.

Recently, however, Willson got a little closer to her old dream when she went to Florida to watch the Hubbell space launch mission and toured the Kennedy Space Center.

While there, she attended a committee meeting for the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy Board. AURA oversees the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, which is associated with the Hubbell Telescope the astronauts repaired. During the meeting an announcement was made about getting passes to see the launch.

Willson decided to take her niece, nephews and their parents to watch the February launch.

The launch was scheduled for 4 a.m., so the group ate a late dinner and parked on the causeway to wait.

Loud speakers announced the count down and when the shuttle had lift-off, Willson said the whole sky turned brilliantly light.

Willson said the last launch she attended was that of Apollo 14 on a press pass she had acquired through her part-time job at a museum announcing planetarium shows.

“If you really want a good view [of a launch], do get a press pass,” she said. With a pass, people are “allowed as close as anybody is allowed,” she said.

The car pass that she had this year is available to anyone who requests to see the launch, she said.

At about 5:30 a.m., Willson went to the live briefing room and heard the wake-up call for the astronauts. She heard the astronauts say, “Good morning, thanks for the wake up call.”

Willson also toured the Kennedy Space Center.

“I was there for six hours and could easily have gone back for another six,” she said.

She said her favorite part was the tour, when she saw the launch pad and “all the places where things are really happening.”

She also toured the newly-opened Apollo-Saturn Building. There she saw a Saturn rocket on display overhead. “You could walk along the length of it and look at all the parts,” she said. She described the rocket as being longer than the Physics Building.

Willson teaches Astronomy 120 and serves on a committee to improve the class and improve retention in the astronomy program.

“I can’t ever teach a course the same way twice,” she said. “I’d put myself to sleep.”

She said she’s always looking for better ways to explain things to students.

Josh Anderson, a freshman in Willson’s class, said, “She relates things to a student’s point of view very well. … She makes a huge lecture hall feel like a group of friends that ask questions easily of one another.”

Willson said she likes helping students build a new view of the universe they live in and develop new problem solving skills that will help them in life.

Willson is also working on a long-term research project with other professors, looking at what happens to stars, like the sun, when they get very old.

Willson said “the most intense feeling of satisfaction” in her job comes when she has a breakthrough in her research. “That’s a real high,” she said. “You have a sense that you have really made a step and it’s a step that wasn’t made before.”

“Science is actually a very creative activity,” she said.