International Star Registry

Being a bit bored, I decided to do a bit of snooping around the Internet to see what I could learn about this crowd. For those that don't know, they claim to be able to name a star after you, and file it with the Library of Congress (just as all copyrighted material is thus filed!). Of course, their naming has no standing whatsoever outside of their company.

I found this somewhat upsetting site about a bloke who committed suicide (a too common occurrence) and who had a star named after him. The star coordinates are given as

03h 26m 53.10s +51d 03' 24.74"

Looking up the guide star catalog, the nearest star (less than half an arc second away - within the probable error of whatever catalog the ISR uses) is GSC1-3324-00234, and is of magnitude 12.26!

But if you have a look at the site, they have a star chart from the International Star Registry with a star circled. That star is CLEARLY of magnitude much brighter than 12.26! As far as I can make out, that star is HD 21117, and is magnitude 7.6. It is less than 13 arcminutes from the 12.26 magnitude star.

Not only do the ISR not have the authority to name stars, but they even mis-represent the star they "sell" to their customer! Of course, the star that they "sold" is close enough to the bright star on their chart that the circle they drew on the chart is actually quite possibly correctly centred on the star they "sold", thereby giving customer the impression that they "bought" a much brighter star than they actually did! Outrageous!

I'm in two minds as to whether to contact the site owners. It's less than 14 months since this guy died, so I guess it's probably not a good idea just yet.

I'm in two minds as to whether to contact the site owners. It's less than 14 months since this guy died, so I guess it's probably not a good idea just yet.

I don't mean to sound cruel, but to hell with that. It's a con job, and any remaining relatives should be told such. It's bad enough in my opinion that the company were fine making a buck at the expense of the man's family. Name and shame, Colm.

Seanie.

Pretty much. This is a pure con-job. Every minute they remain open they are preying on more people's feeling and defrauding them of more of their money.

Bart.

Hi all.

You would not believe the amount of people that ring me in the shop asking where can the get this done. Then are very surprised when I tell them it’s a con-job, a Scam just to get their money. The star is no more yours or mine to give a way. They say its people who have died, or for their mom, dad. Brother, sister, uncles Birthday. Or the birth of a child is a popular one. The amount off people who think they can get this done is just amazing. :shock:

Not only do the ISR not have the authority to name stars,

I have always informed anyone who asks not to go near that company or similar and I agree with all you say except for the aforementioned remark.

Any person or company can name a star or for that matter, any deep sky object, whatever they like. The likliehood of anyone paying a blind bit of notice to your chosen name is another matter as the IAU is certainly not going to recognise it and it is the internationally recognised body for naming stars, celestial objects and surface features. It operates under a consensus by all professional bodies and amateur astronomers in general.

Private companies use very carefully chosen wording to create an "official" status to their business and there is not a thing the IAU can do except to warn people as it does on its website.

Sir Patrick Moore renamed 110 deep sky objects in his Caldwell Catalogue and it has gained some recognition with amateur astronomers despite an outcry at the start with a few books now written on them.

100% agree with Carl and Gordon about advising people that this is a con job in advance.

However when they have 'purchased' this after the death of someone you have to weigh up what the benefit of telling them then that its a con is. I've had someone ask that I take a photo showing where the star named after their son (I think, memory hazy) was. Now what would be gained by telling them that their name has no meaning other than to just make them feel worse? The person never got back with the coords, but I think the best approach then would have been to take a pic, circle the star, and politely mention that the star's ID used by professional astronomers is HD23456.

Likewise in the case in this post. It's a pure con job selling stars, even moreso that they appear to have sold a faint star possibly convincing the individual that it was a star visible in binoculars. But what will telling the family this actually achieve?