I just got the Nth spam message this week telling me how it exciting it is that I can now “officially” name a star for my dad for Father’s Day. Not only am I NOT excited about it, I’m pretty tired of watching these companies preying on people’s gullibility about how stars are named. There are several who advertise, using all kinds of careful language that implies you can name a star for a loved one, without actually coming right out and saying that the star names they’re charging you for will NOT EVER be used by astronomers. You have to ask yourself, “If it’s so easy to name a star that some company can convince people to pay THEM for the privilege of doing so, then why can’t I just go out and name a star myself without paying them?”

The truth is — you can. Here’s how: go out some night and pick out a star and name it for your loved one. Then, go over to an office supply star and find one of those fancy certificates and fill it in with your loved one’s name and some great language that says you love them more than the moon and stars and to prove it, you’ve reserved a star in the sky that only you and they will know about. While you’re at it, go over to the bookstore and get a star chart book like those I’ve reviewed here—like NightWatch or Exploring the Night Sky With Binoculars or The Stars: A New Way to See Them. Armed with your star book and your certificate, take your loved one out on a clear night, and show them the star you selected for them, and together learn about it. You’ll be way ahead of the game, you will have spent less money, and you’ll still have the same love and gratitude you would have had if you’d bought something from one of the many star-naming companies that have built a thriving cottage industry on selling you something you can do for yourself without their “help.”

I should point out that some museums and planetariums will sell you a star off their domes for purposes of fund-raising. It’s a clever fundraising technique and they are generally very honest about the fact that you’re essentially getting a star on the dome as a kind of unique “donor plaque.” Those ARE NOT the kinds of “star naming” sales I’m talking about here.

For the real lowdown on official star-naming, go to the International Astronomical Union, the organization of astronomers who keep track of celestial names.

Here are a few other links that talk about naming stars:

Jim Kaler’s Star of the Week website; the Space.com website; the Buying a Star FAQ from the sci.astro.amateur newsgroup; Cecil Adams’s Straight Dope” column about star-naming; and finally from the International Planetarium Society, IPS Official Statement on Star Naming.

Read all this, and if you still want to go ahead and buy a star name from some company, at least you’ll be informed that what you’re buying is a novelty, with no official standing in the world of astronomy.

Or, try it my way, and give the gift of a star from your heart, without the middleman.