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Naming a star; scam or a bit of fun?


Brainstorm

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After hearing from a few friends and seeing various postings on facebook, It seems there's people getting stars named after themselves, they are convinced it is official too. This would mean all the star maps would need to be updated with various names that have been re-registered to, surely?

From what I've heard it costs around £30. To me this sounds like a huge scam, but maybe someone will tell me otherwise?

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There are several (many?) companies that supply "named stars" for people. As far as I'm aware its all totally unofficial!! You get a certificate with an RA and DEC value on it and are told "that's your star!". All they do is take these values from a catalogue of faint stars! (I have a friend who bought one!)

As to the cost? If you can sell 'em at £30 you are on to a winner!! If you buy one for £30 you're daft!!!!!

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I think it's as much a scam as those 'buy a piece of the moon' kits...

Yep, thats my take on it as well. If folks want to part with £30 for a nice certificate then that's their business I guess but they should understand that that's all their money has purchased :)

There was a thread on this a while back in which I made an alternative proposition:

http://stargazerslounge.com/1591977-post14.html

The Limpet promotion is still running :eek:

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I have to say, I cringe whenever I get told 'I've got a star named after me'.. I just think 'that's another sucker scammed'.

I think I'm going to go into business, anyone want to buy a star cluster? Special offer, only £200, I'll even throw in a bit of nebulosity for good measure. Galaxies are £500.

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A friend of mine bought a star for his wife, he thought it was a romantic thing to do and she loved the sentiment. He then had to buy a 200p dob so that they could look at it and now they are both into astronomy when before neither was. They now know that the star is not official but neither mind as they have an interesting pastime out of it. personally I have no real problem with the thing, I even have one named after me it was bought as part of a leaving present and although I know the certificate is worthless the sentiment behind it isn't, they felt they'd done something special for me and I wasn't going to disabuse anyone of that notion after all it's the thought that counts. some people pay a tenner for a single red rose on valentines day it lasts a week and then it's gone same thing really what people are really saying is "I care and want to get you something that lasts " there's not much that's longer lasting than a star.

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The sentiment is fine, but I do think no one should be able to get away with charging money for the privilege of having one named after yourself, don't we all "own them" already. :)

actually no. they're paying for the privilege of the name not the ownership

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Forget naming a star. Why not have your face in space? NASA are offering the opportunity to upload your pics to have your mugshot sent into space on the next and last space shuttle launches. It's free too :)

Just Google NASA face in space!

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Do you get your money back if "your" star goes nova? :-)

Cheers

Ian

Brilliant idea - you could make money off the punter by selling nova insurance - "If your star explodes in the next hundred years you get all your money back".

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Just searched one of these companies out and found this at the bottom..

"Please note that Naming a Star for someone is a beautiful and symbolic gesture which makes a stunning and unique gift, but your star name will not be used or recognised by the astronomic or scientific community, and no legal title is inferred or implied."

Heh, suckers!

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You always feel like Scrooge when you say Bah Humbug but that is what it is. A stroll under the stars would be a site more romantic, though Monique is ever going to get that treat from me cos there's imaging to be done!!!

Olly

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It's a scam but if it makes people happy then good luck to them.

http://iau.org/public/buying_star_names/

It's made me wonder - how many stars really are named after people? There are a few with generally recognised nicknames (e.g. Herschel's Garnet Star, Hind's Crimson Star). There's also Sualocin and Rotanev (Alpha and Beta Delphini), named by Niccolo Cacciatore in 1814 after himself (in code).

Niccolò Cacciatore - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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It's a scam but if it makes people happy then good luck to them.

Buying Star Names | IAU

It's made me wonder - how many stars really are named after people? There are a few with generally recognised nicknames (e.g. Herschel's Garnet Star, Hind's Crimson Star). There's also Sualocin and Rotanev (Alpha and Beta Delphini), named by Niccolo Cacciatore in 1814 after himself (in code).

Niccolò Cacciatore - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

barnard's star

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I agree with the IAU, that describes what outfits like the ISR does as "a deplorable commercial trick", but legally, it is not a scam: they promise to send you a certificate and to publish a book with your chosen name associated with a particular star, and they deliver on that promise. The book -- sorry, "register" is, as they say, lodged with the Library of Congress -- as is every other copyright publication in the USA!

However, what they don't tell you is that anyone can call any star any name they like -- they just cannot expect anyone else to use the same name. So, if I want to rename Vega as "Auntie Doris" and send my Auntie Doris a nice certificate with a chart on it with Vega identified as "Auntie Doris", I am breaking no laws.

You can do the same -- find some nice bright star that you like, call it what you want, and print out a chart and a pretty certificate -- it will have exactly the same status amongst astronomers (i.e. as near as dammit, none) as anything the ISR sells you for 30 quid, but will cost you a lot less -- and it won't be some 14th mag thing you can't find!

However, if you are consider doing it, you should probably read Bob Martino's Buying a Star FAQ first. (The ISR and similar have threatened legal action against teh university that hosted this Bob's stuff on this -- shamefully, they caved in and made him take it down -- but the Wayback Machine saves (nearly) all....)

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