Yes, I take your point, but I think it is more complex than that:

To use a different example consider flowers. They have common names and scientific latin names. Which is the real name? Well it depends upon your purpose. For the average person they see the "sunflower" while the scientist knows the same plant as Helianthus Annuus. Is the scientists name any more correct than the common name? That really depends upon the purpose. For scientific classification the answer is yes. For the average person the common name is the better name.

And a sunflower to you is a sunflower to me is a sunflower to Joe Anybody. The visible stars (at least, the brighter ones) also all have common names - Sirius, Canopus, Antares, Betelgeuse etc etc etc, which date back to antiquity. For the average person looking up at the night sky - I'm afraid that all those stars were claimed by Greek & Arabic shepherds a couple of millenia ago!

Why should it be any different for the stars? The formal scientific names or identifications of stars are useful for scientific cataloging and cross comparisons from different data sources. But what difference does that make to the average person not involved in amateur astronomy or astronomical research?

Not a whit, it is true. But the bright stars are already claimed, so in general we are looking at assigning names for those stars that require binos or telescopes to see. But there are a number of these star registries operating - suppose Star Registry A takes star HD102667 and allocates it as "Bob", while Star Registry B takes HD102667 and calls it "Alice". Who is right?

The short answer is "Who cares". The astronomer will call it HD102667, Bob will call it Bob and Alice will call it Alice. So why do we need the registry at all? Bob & Alice are both free (and free is the operative word!) to just wander out one pleasant summer evening, pick a pretty star and name it after themselves. No-one is stopping them.

Of course, if Bob & Alice want to have a fancy certificate that actually says that HD102667 is now called Bob or Alice, then so be it. But they must be aware that no other human being beyond that specific Star Registry will have any idea that this is now so. The layperson won't bother (who wants to know the name of a star you can't even see?) and the astronomers won't care, because it is an ambiguous nomenclature.

But what these star naming companies are doing is offering a service. They're saying they'll create a "registry" and select specific stars for which people can buy the rights to name those stars in that registry.

Aye, and there's the rub. The naming rights to these stars are not really theirs to sell. Who gave them the authority to sell these rights? Once again, I can go out into the yard and name Venus after my beautiful daughter, with exactly the same validity as these Star Registries.

If we object strongly to the star registry companies aren't we really saying that we think only astronomers have the "right" to name stars? Who authorized astronomers as the sole proprietors of star naming?

But the IAU is not selling the naming rights. Astronomers per se have no more right to name stars than the man in the street. The IAU allocates a nomenclature that is then used by astronomers around the world. If I take the spectrum of good ol' HD102667 and send an e-mail to 20 astronomers around the world to run the same spectrum, I can be confident that we will all be looking at the same object, because we will all be using the IAU catalogues. If I send that e-mail asking them to check out Bob for me, I'll probably get arrested.

What harm is being done by companies setting up their own registry for naming stars so that the "little person" on the street can participate in naming the stars up there? The purpose in this case is not scientific.

There is no harm, provided that the buyer is aware that astronomers at the VLT are not going to be doing interferometry work on Nigel Crutcheon III tonight. The problem is, that the registries make the sale as though the name will have some sort of validity - but that is not so, it cannot be so. The lady I mentioned earlier had (I suspect) paid money to have her beloved husband immortalised in the heavens. A noble and honourable sentiment. Some huckster took her cash, gave her a star that she will never be able to see, a pretty piece of paper and then moved on to the next rube. I'm afraid that I don't see that as harmless entrepreneurialism - I see that as a scam.

As long as the product is not improperly advertised so that the purchaser gets the impression they are buying a government or IAU sanctioned name, is there really a crime here.

But that is exactly how it is pitched.

Its a business. If there is a market for the product, then it will sell. The product that they're offering is a chance for a person to purchase a personalized name for a specific star in a specific registry that is published even though not affiliated with any government or the IAU.

But it comes back to what the buyer is being told. If the buyer is informed that he or she can go out and name their own star with exactly the same validity, but still chooses to purchase a star from the vendor so that they can have their name written in a published registry, then that is their choice. But then they are effectively aware that what they are buying is a certificate and their name in print.

A productive idea might be to actually evaluate the quality of the product offered by these star naming companies. How much scientific information do they provide about the star? Do they give accurate coordinates, spectral class, surface temperature, color, distance, the official scientific name/number of the star and so on? Do they give the purchaser a choice of certain stellar characteristics? Do they provide a short booklet about the actual scientific naming and basics of stars?

By and large, no. If you have a copy of Phil Plait's outstanding tome Bad Astronomy ( :wink: ), note the comment made by one of these registries as to what would happen if a persons duly named star happened to fall from the sky. They indicate that if the star does fall from the sky, they will be only too happy to name another one, free of charge. Little more need be said as to the educative motivations of such people.

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"I'd take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance any day." - Douglas Adams