Buying a Star, Naming a Star... It's a Total Scam!

The Star-Naming Scam: Don’t Fall For It!

In the category of modern-day charlatans, I present to you: star sellers! For a few tens, or even hundreds of dollars, they’ll have you believe you can name a star after yourself, your significant other, your dog… These vendors are selling something purely virtual, nothing more (they even admit it… but not very loudly). In most cases, these are one-person operations—just a single individual with a computer.

The IAU, or International Astronomical Union, is the only organization in the world capable of officially naming a star or any other celestial object. Star sellers, of course, are not recognized by this body. And, while it might seem incredible, all known stars already have names! Sure, they might not be as pretty as your girlfriend’s name, but you don’t get to choose, nah! Sometimes, new objects like comets or asteroids might bear the names of their discoverers, but that, again, is entirely at the discretion of the IAU.

So, please be very careful and think twice before you “buy” a star name. All you’ll receive in return is a printed sheet with the coordinates of your so-called star (often generated from free software like “Cartes du Ciel” or “Stellarium”…), your name in a private database with absolutely no value, and maybe a keychain or some similar trinket. What truly bothers me about the commercial approach of these star sellers is their occasional use of pseudo-scientific explanations to sow doubt among potential buyers. Worse, some of them even try to convince you that the IAU has stopped its star-naming activities and that their company has taken up the torch!!!

Buying a star, or a plot of land on the Moon, Mars, Venus, or another planet, often stems from a really good place, and the thousands of visits this page gets show that many of you want to make someone happy. For that, I can only commend you. However, I hope that after reading this article, you’ll make your purchases with full awareness and avoid getting ripped off. There, I said it!

UPDATE 08/30/2015: Adding another layer to this! As I browse various star-seller websites, I’ve noticed that to further confuse people, most of them mention the Hipparcos Catalog (often written in English to sound even more serious: “Hipparcos Catalog”). Don’t fall for it; again, this is just smoke and mirrors. The Hipparcos Catalog is a listing of stars created in 1997, freely downloadable like most star catalogs. They simply use it to offer 118,218 stars “for sale.” It’s their entire business model.

In summary:

• Naming or selling stars and other celestial objects is NOT scientific.
• Naming or selling stars and other celestial objects is NOT recognized by ANY astronomical entity.
• Naming or selling stars and other celestial objects is DISCOURAGED by astronomical entities.
• If you buy or name a celestial object, that name will NOT be referenced by astronomical entities and will NOT appear on sky charts, atlases, or any official references.