Its in sweden too, i posted in another forum without checking here, sorry. It goes under the name, www.mystar.se and what really suprises me is that people actually by this stuff...

How charming. There is no disclaimer that I could tell. It does sounds so official...

"The star name will be filed in a Registry Vault and recorded in a book, which will be registered in the copyright office of the United States of America."

What does the Sweedish version say?

I wonder if they can give me the same star that my wife got me? Their price seems a little high.

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Lighten up! This is a stellar board! Author: duh.

"The Sun, with all the planets revolving around it, and depending on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as though it had nothing else in the universe to do..." Author: Galileo supposedly.

It also says that the star will be registererd in the copyright office of the United States of America. The swedish version that is. There has been very much advertising in radio and tv also, and also on the web. There is no mention in the ads about the fact that you are not actually buying a star...

Maybe we should point out to them that they are misleading people into thinking their patrons will really have a star named after them that would be in an official manner beyond just their own book, since the IAU will not recognize their naming.

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Lighten up! This is a stellar board! Author: duh.

"The Sun, with all the planets revolving around it, and depending on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as though it had nothing else in the universe to do..." Author: Galileo supposedly.

From the faq of the swedish site:
"The named stars are not registered at an official organisation, scientists use coordinate to identify and locate stars. A star is mainly boiling gas floating around in space. Therefore ownership is not possible, but you can name a star and get the name registered with us."

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An emperor without enemies, a king without a kingdom, supported in life by the willing tribute of a free people.

And just how many things are wrong with that statement?

Of course, no one is selling ownership, but they are implying the star will "officially" have the desired name of the customer. Although, they do say "registered with us" should be a clue that there is a limit to how official the name would be.

Is this how you would read it, or is there more merit as read in sweedish?

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Lighten up! This is a stellar board! Author: duh.

"The Sun, with all the planets revolving around it, and depending on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as though it had nothing else in the universe to do..." Author: Galileo supposedly.

Well, I can count at least 3 things wrong in just 3 words of that statement

If someone bought me a star I would call them an idiot for doing something like that...Who actually thinks that they name that star you bought.

Must be the worst scam I have ever seen.

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I'm sorry to be a bit contrarian here, but I see little wrong with what they are doing, with the sole exception that they give people the idea that there is something official when in fact there isn't. But as long as that's stated, what's wrong with it?

After all, it's completely legal for me to start an artificial language and call the earth or the sun whatever I want to. People sometimes make it seem like the IAU has some monopoly right on the naming of astronomical objects, but AFAIK that's not correct at all. They have a right to give some kind of official naming, but nobody can arrest me for using the North Star instead of Polaris A or whatever it's called. In fact, in Japanese people often refer to Vega as "Orihime," but that's their right. So I think in principle, people have a right to call things (and that goes for numbers, too, as shown by the spoof!) whatever they want to.

Of course, if they are deliberately tricking people into believing that there is something more official, such as that their name will be recognized by the UN or IAU or whatever, then it may well be fraud.

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As above, so below

Jens: the thing is that they are doing just that, tricking people to believe that their "bought" star will be owned. It is not even until one reads the FAQ that one realise that there is nothing official about the purchase whatsoever.

OK, it's one thing for individuals to run this sort of thing, but I just went to BadAstronomy.com, but I just spotted this for the Sydney Observatory

That's bad - there's no disclaimer there at all that I can see. Time for some Aussies to write letters, I think!

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Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.

As I have mentioned in other threads on this topic, one real problem is when people buy stars for dead loved ones, thinking they have gotten some permanent memorial.

Then they come to a star party or an observatory and demand to be shown the star.

If the astronomer plays along, then the astronomer is abetting a scam.

If the astronomer tells them the truth, then he is breaking their hearts.

I hate and despise the people who sell stars, because they force us to deal with this sad problem every year.

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"I'm as accurate as any psychic. And I'm a cartoon!" -- Squidward

"Arrrgh, the laws of physics be a harsh mistress!" -- Bender

I assume that's in Sydney? How many Sydneys can you put in a sentence?

I agree that this is a similar situation, but they make it clear what it is, and what you get, and where the money goes, and how localized the information is (In Sydney I think).

From that Syndney Observatory page:

Think someone could get away with a false advertising claim from these two sentences?

I still have a colour supplement article
somewhere which first informed me of this
star naming outfit. It was 1978 I think and
they have been laughing all the way to the
bank since! Anyway I have said this before,
set up ac website that allocates you a star
from a catalogue and sets up a colourful
certificate that can be printed out. All for
nothing! I suppose the temptation to ask for
a fee is too powerful though. No seventies
idealism anymore

Good points, and the reason we have false advertising laws. Memorial issues are even tougher on everyone.

This is another reason I think the IAU should step in and work with some of these operations to produce dedicated funds for astronomy needs by making qualified star names official. There are numerous ways to work with 3rd party providers to assure operations stay legitimate and the IAU does not have to conduct the sales operations directly. Yet, the funds would be controlled by the IAU. Hopefully, special projects would be advertised to the public to stir sales (e.g. Save the Hubble Telescope).

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Lighten up! This is a stellar board! Author: duh.

"The Sun, with all the planets revolving around it, and depending on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as though it had nothing else in the universe to do..." Author: Galileo supposedly.

I don't think so, because it doesn't say "visible with the naked eye."

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As above, so below

I could imagine you could try to get around this by patiently explaining that stars are given lots of different names by people using various languages around the world, and that astronomers don't deal with these "common names" but rather with a scientific vocabulary, just in the same way that doctors don't say "stroke" but rather lunar infarction or sub-arachnoid hemorrhage or whatever. And that in fact there are many names for each star, and that their name is just the name given by that particular system.

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As above, so below