Naming stars
In my previous post I described how stars get their names and why most of them consist of strings of numbers and letters. Ultimately, there are just too many stars for it to be useful, or indeed practical, to give them all poetic sounding monikers.
However, some rather enterprising parts of humanity saw a gap in the market and they will name a star whatever you like, for a fee. For some reason snake-oil salesmen come to my mind. The important point to note here is that anybody could set themselves up as a business selling naming rights to stars. They could even sell names to stars that other people and companies have also named. There is no exclusivity and there is no authority other than that self-given. In the same way, anyone could start a business giving naming rights to species of animals (the Slacker Astronomy sloth anyone?) or naming countries (Australia could be Astrobloggerland).
Given these reasons then, why would someone pay good money to name a star? The star naming companies claim that they are selling a novelty gift that may get people interested in the night sky (scant evidence for that) and that their customers are aware of the fact that there is no recognition of the name other than by that company (are they?). At best this puts the product on the level of a "World's Best Dad certificate", but at worst it looks highly suspect. I am aware that some people pay to name stars after recently deceased relatives as a thoughtful gesture in their memory. These people are totally unaware that this trade is just an exercise in making fancy certificates and that puts people like me in an awkward situation. Do I tell them that the certificate has no meaning and was a waste of money, or do I protect their feelings at a difficult time and go along with it? This situation may be familiar to many astronomers, both professional and amateur, and the star naming companies do not have to deal with it. As a result, I do not like these companies and neither does the International Astronomical Union - the official international body that represents astronomers.
Having never bought a star name - I cannot bring myself to support these businesses in any way - I have never properly examined the 'product'. That is, until now. The other week my friend Peter told me that he had been bought a star - registered with the Intergalactic Star Database - as a bit of a joke. It turns out that a star naming pack can be bought in high street stores such as WHSmith for 'only' £29.99. Encouragingly, it does come with a copy of a Philips Star Chart and Planisphere. These useful tools (worth only around £10) are the only things in the pack. Despite my poor opinion of these certificates, I was still rather shocked by the poor, and frankly misleading, information provided. First let me show you the certificate:
Naming certificate for The Proogs Star. CREDIT: Peter Scandrett
Document to show the location of the star CREDIT: Peter Scandrett
Finally, the "Altitude" box has me completely confused. What are the hashed areas? What is the black hemisphere? Presumably the curved lines are supposed to indicate the elevations of two different stars over time to show where to look on May 6th. Why are there two sets of curved lines? From the UK, the maximum elevation of M6 (or M7) would be about six or seven degrees, so neither line represents the star in question. It just doesn't seem to make any sense.
Rather than waste £30 on something as silly as this, buy a copy of Norton's Star Atlas, Collins Pocket Guide to Stars and Planets or a Philips Star Chart. You'll save yourself some money and you'll get much more out of the night sky.
Many thanks to Peter for letting me pull apart his star certificate on this blog.
Comments: Naming stars
I was hoping that my dislike of star naming companies came across in the post. If it didn't I may need to reword things because I was certainly NOT aiming to promote them.
These companies manage to skirt around the edge of what is legal because most of them now point out that their made-up designations are not recognised by the IAU (link is in my post by the way).
Neil Haggard has a good page discussing the legal issues surrounding this topic.
Posted by Stuart on Sunday 14th May 2006 (11:25 UTC)
LOL Stuart no I know you weren't, don't worry!! Hehe thanks for those links. This does annoy me, almost as much as cloudynights ;-)!
Posted by Will on Tuesday 16th May 2006 (12:24 UTC)
i got a star brought for me. does this mean nothing then?
also im having a hard time locating it on star maps or in the night sky.
Posted by jake on Monday 25th Dec 2006 (22:19 UTC)
Jake, although naming stars is all totally unofficial and in my opinion a huge con, take it in good spirit. What it means is that the person giving it to you probably thinks very highly of you. It isn't their fault that they were tricked by the star naming scoundrels.
With regards to the difficulty in finding it, I'm not too surprised because they often appear to sell very faint stars that you haven't a hope of finding especially without a telescope or in the light pollution of a city. Don't let that stop you trying to have a look at the night sky though. You could even just pick a more visible star to think of as your own special star. ;-)
Merry Christmas and happy New Year.
Posted by Stuart on Monday 25th Dec 2006 (23:56 UTC)
Very interesting read, as a business owner selling gifts to UK customers you've opened up my mind to setting up my own "Name A Star" business or even "Name A Country" business, I'm sure there must be a few plots of land somewhere on a dessert island. Before you blow your top and bite my head off remeber the key word "Novelty Gift", it's a novelty... and as someone said people buying the gifts think very highly of the recipient.
Posted by BussinessOwner on Monday 08th Jan 2007 (18:20 UTC)
Very interesting read, as a business owner selling gifts to UK customers you've opened up my mind to setting up my own "Name A Star" business or even "Name A Country" business, I'm sure there must be a few plots of land somewhere on a dessert island. Before you blow your top and bite my head off remeber the key word "Novelty Gift", it's a novelty... and as someone said people buying the gifts think very highly of the recipient.
Posted by BussinessOwner on Monday 08th Jan 2007 (18:20 UTC)
Very interesting read, as a business owner selling gifts to UK customers you've opened up my mind to setting up my own "Name A Star" business or even "Name A Country" business, I'm sure there must be a few plots of land somewhere on a dessert island. Before you blow your top and bite my head off remeber the key word "Novelty Gift", it's a novelty... and as someone said people buying the gifts think very highly of the recipient.
Posted by BussinessOwner on Monday 08th Jan 2007 (18:20 UTC)
As a UK "Bussiness Owner", you will be aware that selling something with a claim that you know not to be true is against UK Trading Standards. These products come very close to what is legal and what isn't. Apart from being on dodgy grounds legally, it is just plain wrong to make bereaving people think they have really bought a star for their relative.
If you do start a "Name a Country" business, you could sell off all the existing country naming rights first. Following the logic of the star naming idea, it doesn't matter if people pay money to rename the United States or Romania as they would be conspirators in the joke. Being in on the joke is OK but most people that buy stars don't know it is a joke. They are lead to believe that it is 'real' and are duped.
Of course, I don't believe in the slightest that you would decide to start a dodgy business on the back of my comments. It is more likely that you already had the idea to setup a dodgy business and are just using my rant as an excuse to (perversely) justify it. There are plenty of better ideas to invest in.
Posted by Stuart on Monday 08th Jan 2007 (20:18 UTC)
thank you for the information on naming a star. i only came across this blog because both my son(8)and daugter(11) have special occasions coming up and i was thinking of naming a star each after them.im sure as they are children that it doesnt matter to them right now that it isnt real. im not going to it now on principal because you have made me see that im being conned. ill save my money for something more realistic. thanks again :)
Posted by mary on Wednesday 21st Feb 2007 (00:44 UTC)
forgot to mention there is one website in particular that will e mai you the certificate to print yourself, without any map to find it or anything else for the ONLY âˆ28. how can they get away with this?
Posted by mary on Wednesday 21st Feb 2007 (00:48 UTC)
Mary, they get away with it because they claim that their
victimscustomers know that it is a novelty item and not real. I think it is really dodgy though. I'm appalled by a charge of 28 (dollars, euros or pounds) for something that you have to print out yourself.If you want to get something space related for your kids you could get a star gazing or similar book from all good booksellers. For something a bit different you could buy a piece of a real meteorite - there are several websites that sell them. I think having a lump of rock/metal that was part of an asteroid is pretty special.
Posted by Stuart on Wednesday 21st Feb 2007 (08:57 UTC)
Stuart..... YOU are indeed a star !!!!
I was ready to 'buy' a star for my husband to be for a wedding present and somehow came upon your blog and after reading it have decided against it. I dont consider myself to be naive and it was for the novelty value, but me, like mary have decided against it out of principle. What a rip off........
Thanks !!!!!
Posted by lisa on Monday 02nd Apr 2007 (15:35 UTC)
Lisa, you certainly aren't naive and it is really great to meet someone (albeit virtually) who does some background reading on these things before buying. If only everyone was like you ;-)
I hope you find your husband something else that he'll like.
Posted by Stuart on Monday 02nd Apr 2007 (20:37 UTC)
oh man.. if only i read your blog b4 i 'buy' the star.. i jz bought it online.. i dunno if i could manage to cancel my order.. there goes my money :(
Posted by bella on Saturday 05th May 2007 (18:20 UTC)
hello I couldn't write anything her because the system didn't think I was real, am I real?
Posted by Glen on Thursday 07th Jun 2007 (21:11 UTC)
I recently "named a star" for my girlfriends 18th birthday.
Chill out.... I think that this is a fun quirky gift that can bring a smile to those to whom you present it.
Posted by Glen on Thursday 07th Jun 2007 (21:12 UTC)
Glen, as long as people know it is a novelty gift that is fine. What I think is very unfair is that I have to deal with people who have lost relatives and friends and who think that this is a "real" gift. Why should I have to be the one to explain that it is only a novelty to grieving people while the folks that sold it to them run to the bank with the money? It isn't fair on me and it certainly isn't fair on the grieving people.
Posted by Stuart on Friday 08th Jun 2007 (11:11 UTC)
I would just like to add to this blog that I indeed bought and named a star for my other half. I was given the reference to find the star and where to find it. I knew it was within Hercules but on google sky I only typed in the reference number and goggle found it straight away. Google also showed me that it was indeed within Hercules so I'm afraid to say that the product information given to me was 100% spot on. I am not saying that this is the case with all people but I believe that in my case it is genuine. So please if you are thinking of buying one as a gift don't be put of, just do your research first.
Posted by susie stearn on Wednesday 22nd Aug 2007 (21:39 UTC)
Susie, these companies do usually include a real astronomical catalogue number as well as their own information. I presume you typed this number into Google sky, so Google was able to find it. If you had typed in the star naming company's number it is *very* unlikely that it would have found the star. I have helped people find their "named" stars based on the real astronomical catalog numbers before so I know that this is sometimes the case.
I am not saying that there isn't *some* correct information on these certificates. I don't like the wrong or mis-leading information that is also included.
Posted by Stuart on Wednesday 22nd Aug 2007 (22:45 UTC)
Wish i had read this before i bought a name a star gift. I too bought one from 'intergalactic star database'. However, i named two stars situated together as a wedding gift. As your example, the co-ordinates given are for M31- Andromeda galaxy and not the circled stars. I also found the altidude box confusing and it only details xmas eve and xmas day! This was not a xmas present! Im really disappointed and i cant give this a wedding gift. Surely this goes against Uk trading standards?
Posted by Ami on Thursday 06th Sep 2007 (11:46 UTC)
Ami, I suspect these companies probably stay just on the legal side of the line for trading standards. However, if you feel that it was mis-sold you probably should contact your local trading standards office and complain. The more people who complain about it, the more honest these companies will have to be.
Posted by Stuart on Thursday 06th Sep 2007 (14:12 UTC)
Well sometimes people find ways of ripping people off,which of course is wrong. My partner bought me one for Christmas and the gesture was so romantic and thoughtful. I think it was £30.00 (if thats what it cost!) well spent! £30 is cheap to make some one feel special. If you feel so strongly about it maybe you should go to Trading Standards with it.
Posted by PJ on Sunday 30th Dec 2007 (10:21 UTC)
PJ, I'm glad you enjoyed receiving a star name as a gift and I have no problem with that. As long as you know it is a "novelty" gift and just appreciate the sentiment of your partner that is great.
What I object to is when I am put into awkward situations with people who have been recently bereaved and didn't realise that it was a "novelty" item but thought it was very serious. I don't see why I should be happy to be lumbered with that.
As I've said, star naming falls near the line for Trading Standards but, in general, doesn't cross it. So I won't have much luck with Trading Standards but by making this page I might be able to fully inform those searching online in advance of buying one. As long as people know that it is "just a bit of fun" I'm happy.
Happy New Year.
Posted by Stuart on Monday 31st Dec 2007 (02:33 UTC)
My late wife has just had a star named after her. I think its great.Thank you my son and daughter-in-law.XXX (it Helps)
Posted by Gordon on Sunday 06th Jan 2008 (15:01 UTC)
My late wife has just had a star named after her. I think its great.Thank you my son and daughter-in-law.XXX (it Helps)
Posted by Gordon on Sunday 06th Jan 2008 (15:01 UTC)
My son and daughter-in-law bought me a star in M15 (Pegasus) as a present for neating cancer. Having looked at the location, there a millions of stars there and I cannot see why one of them would not be me. It probably is a scam and not even a very expensive one. On a scale of satisfaction I give it 10 out of 10 and the paperwork knocked up looks impressive if not authentic. There is too much spite in the world and I personally think that this isnt any worse than buying any other commercial product designed to tug the heart strings and bring comfort to many. So even if it is bollocks, its quite impressive bollocks. AND, they thought of it first.
Posted by Patricia Margaret Tepper on Monday 11th Feb 2008 (23:03 UTC)
My son and daughter-in-law bought me a star in M15 (Pegasus) as a present for neating cancer. Having looked at the location, there a millions of stars there and I cannot see why one of them would not be me. It probably is a scam and not even a very expensive one. On a scale of satisfaction I give it 10 out of 10 and the paperwork knocked up looks impressive if not authentic. There is too much spite in the world and I personally think that this isnt any worse than buying any other commercial product designed to tug the heart strings and bring comfort to many. So even if it is bollocks, its quite impressive bollocks. AND, they thought of it first.
Posted by Patricia Margaret Tepper on Monday 11th Feb 2008 (23:03 UTC)
That was BEATING cancer by the way, not neating cancer.
Posted by Patricia Margaret Tepper on Monday 11th Feb 2008 (23:11 UTC)
I bought a star in the constellation M10 star data base number ISD 0011834 and named it the annsid star in memeory of my dearly departed parents please tell me it at least exists
Posted by terry on Wednesday 26th Mar 2008 (19:27 UTC)
Terry, it may do. Unfortunately, you've not provided enough information for me to try looking for it as you've only given me the company's own internal number for the star. Do you have any more info about it such as a position on the sky and/or a map of its position?
Posted by Stuart on Thursday 27th Mar 2008 (19:05 UTC)
I received a star also
I thought it was a great idea
I only got it yesterday and I've already bought a telescope to see it with
Upset to see people don't like these kind of lovely things these days...
Posted by Erin on Monday 07th Apr 2008 (18:05 UTC)
Also I'd like to say that if you didn't know, the stars are recorded on the intergalactic database so they are real
Posted by Erin on Monday 07th Apr 2008 (18:08 UTC)
Stuart, you don't own this site you know!
Anyway, even if name a star isnt real who cares!
Posted by Maraquin on Monday 07th Apr 2008 (18:13 UTC)
Erin, the star may indeed be real but the "Intergalactic Database" is not recognised by anyone other than the company that maintains it (and its customers).
Maraquin, which site are you referring to? As I have said many times, I care because I have to deal with bereaved people who thought it was 'official'. As long as all parties know it is just a bit of fun there is no problem.
Posted by Stuart on Tuesday 08th Apr 2008 (21:52 UTC)
my mate got one of these from his girlfriend and as im intrested in astronomy i wanted to know which star was "his".your right, if anyone spent anymore time looking at this item than "thank you darling" they will be dissapointed. the text and star charts get more obscure as you try to interpret them, and as you say, in fact only tell you the constellation and messier number. (M34)which on my chart is a good hour left of the handdrawn red circle that scruffily outlines the spec that is this famous(not)star. this i suppose is enough to point at the approximate position assuming you figure out when its visable with the planishere, and say to the loved one "its there if we could but see it"
as for the ISD number, until it becomes accessable and we can all cross reference it, (i cant find it anywhere, nor is there any contact address (at all!)) its meaningless to anyone but the recipient and the company, just as you describe. fact is only us nerds will know, or care. and i figure as long as they dont start fighting over their newly accquired 400 parsec distant real estate what harm can it do? SO. my real question is how to find the little beggar? i have a decent goto scope and could star hop using the chart and try and identify it by its companions( i assume its got magnitude this side of 18th(?)do you have a better way?...
Posted by paul b on Tuesday 29th Apr 2008 (17:40 UTC)
Paul B, I've had similar problems myself. The best I can suggest is that you use an interactive tool such as Aladin which may help identify the star in question. Given that the charts provided by the star naming companies can be pretty pathetic you should go on the assumption that stars may be missing (or even added). If you can find a pattern that matches (make sure you use a similar field of view), Aladin will be able to tell you the real catalogue name.
Posted by Stuart on Wednesday 30th Apr 2008 (08:13 UTC)
Last week, my sixteen year old Geography students presented me with one of these certificates etc as a thank you/retirement gift. It made me extremely happy. Afterwards, I read your blog whilst searching for information about the certificate on the Internet. I am a lot wiser about it now AND I am still extremely happy. As in any gift, it is the thought behind it that really counts. In this case, their kind thoughts and actions are worth far, far, more to my wife and I than the monetary cost of this (special to them and me) novelty gift.
Posted by Robin on Monday 19th May 2008 (14:29 UTC)