Anyone know much about naming stars?

Factual Questions
1

Okay, bear with me a second. Back in my, our son died, having been still born at 38 weeks. We have obviously done our share of mourning and all else that goes with recovery after such a tragedy. A few years ago, a friend of mine lost a child and, among the many memorials, they received a certificate identifying a star named in their child’s honor. I believe the certificate came from here . My wife and I are interested in doing something similar, but we are not interested in simply contributing to someone’s profitmaking venture. In looking at the above linked site, it seems like it is little more than a very attractive certificate, but offers no real value at all.

I hope this still falls within GQ territory, but I’m interested if this site seems legit at all. Does this seem to have any value beyond the nice certificate they send? If this isn’t the best way to do something like this, is there any more concrete or official way to name a star? Is there, in fact, some authority responsible for naming stars and do they recognize the names from these people or from anyone else?

If this is nothing more than a money-making thing, I would rather donate my money to The Preeclampsia Foundation . There, at least, my money would go toward helping other families avoid the tragedy that we have suffered.

Thanks for your help.

2

Star naming is a money making scheme of no consequence or relevance;
no-one in the field of astronomy takes these names seriously, but some are quite annoyed at the whole thing.

The star that you would get would almost certainly be invisible without a very large telescope, and often the star is described inaccurately.

3

The companies you’ve referenced simply sell nice certificates. The master speaks.

That said, I remember when an uncle gave his parents (my grandparents) “a star named in their honor” one year for Christmas. To his dying day, it was my grandfather’s most cherished gift.

4

I’m sorry for your terrible loss.

Star naming is a scam. Phil Plaitt, the Bad Astronomer, and sometime poster on SDMB, said this

in an article the Tennessean.com did in December of 2002.

5

You are right. Your money would be better spent donated to the Preeclampsia Foundation.

6

I suspected as much. Now it falls to me to rain on my wife’s parade, which is already pretty rainy as it is. This loss was back in May, but it still feels quite tender. The idea of naming a star seemed a romantic notion that would allow Hayden (our son) to carry on even when his actual time on Earth was quite brief. Still, I would rather donate the fifty bucks to The Preeclampsia Foundation than line ISR’s bank account.

I know I’m straying off of GQ now, but does anyone have a suggestion for a nice memorial along the lines of star naming that might be more meaningful? We’ve done things like donations to the hospital where he was born (we recieved outstanding care) and to places like St. Jude’s and Children’s Hospital of Austin and our own local St. Mark’s Medical Center, but none of those things seem quite right. We really liked the grand idea of naming a star. Any ideas?

7

There are some hospitals and many city parks that will allow you to plant a tree in someone’s name. A small plaque can often be placed next to the tree with you son’s name.

8

Well, it’s not on the same scale as star, but The Nature Conservancy’s “Adopt-an-Acre” program to protect land for rainforest conservation does some good and is legit. You don’t own the land, but they give you a certificate for a particular spot.

http://nature.org/joinanddonate/adoptanacre/

9

Not a star, but it might be possible to name an asteroid after your son.

From the article:
*Fred Espenak, a NASA scientist who calculates orbits for eclipses, also had an asteroid named for him this spring. “It’s quite an honor to have a piece of real estate in the solar system named after you,” he says. *

Best of luck.

10

Drum God, my niece was killed in a car accident on January 12. She was two.

Some of the things that people did for us (meaning mostly my sister and brother-in-law, but for me too) were pretty cool.

One friend did purchase a star for Hannah. My sister and brother-in-law loved it and cherish the certificate. Yes, it might be frivolous, and it doesn’t mean anything to anyone but our family, but does that matter? Although Hannah’s star is in the southern hemisphere, I’m still going to take the time to look it up, identify its constellation, and show it to Corinne and Todd on some sky software I have. If you and your wife like the idea, and it brings you or her comfort, so what that it’s “lined someone else’s pockets?” In times like these, it helps so much to do what you can. I say do both, if you can afford it.

Some other things that people did for us include the following:
–A friend of mine had a tree planted for Hannah, and gave me a similar certificate noting the location of the tree. I don’t remember whether the tree in question will have a plaque on or around it, but I do plan to go to the grove and see it (and the other trees too). Both Corinne and Todd worked for Wells Fargo, and WF also planted a tree for Hannah.

–Wells Fargo talked to Corinne and Todd about setting up a scholarship in Hannah’s name. Not sure how far that’s gotten, or what it takes, but it’s a neat idea.

–My cousin has started a fund for donations to the hospitals that took care of Hannah and my mother (who was also involved in the accident, but came out with only a broken wrist, finger, and spirit). There’s a twist, however - her nephews go to the hospital a lot (it seems they’re chronically sick) and whenever they ride in an ambulance, the EMTs usually give them a teddy bear for comfort, which they can keep. There’s a bunch of rules and regulations about what sorts of teddy bears the hospitals can give to children in ambulances (no hard eye or nose buttons, for example), but they will accept teddy bears that meet the regulations or donations to buy same. So my cousin plans on either purchasing acceptable teddy bears with the donations or donating that money to the hospital for teddy bear purchases, in Hannah’s memory, to give to other scared kids that might have to ride in ambulances. Perhaps you could do the same.

While I think I like the teddy bear idea the best, I also really appreciate the tree and the star. Perhaps these ideas will appeal to you, too.

I’m sorry for your loss.

Amy

11

Salaam aleikum DrumGod,

M

12

[QUOTEQuote=Drum God]
… does anyone have a suggestion for a nice memorial along the lines of star naming that might be more meaningful?
[/QUOTE]

Salaam aleikum DrumGod,

May I offer you my sympathy with your loss. We lost 3 children so I can imagine how you and your wife must feel.

We decided to keep them in our memory by financially “adopt” children who enter life in very difficult circumstances are in need of any help they can get.
Making donations to such an organisation in fact not only helps the children you financially adopt. It most often helps their whole family or even the whole community they live in.
I hope you would consider this option as a meaningful way to honour your child.

Salaam. A

13

Sorry for the mess here above. There seems to be something wrong with my coordination today.

14

I still think it is a heartfelt gesture to name a star, however you don’t have to spend the $50 or whatever to do it.

What I would do is get some nice certificate-type parchment paper (you might even be able to purchase pre-bordered certificate paper from a local copy shop on a per-sheet basis), and if you have any basic word-processing software, you can create your own certificate that says something like “Let it be known on this day, January the Twenty-First of Two thousand and Four, CE that the star currently designated Betelgeuse” (or whatever star you like) " shall be forever known as George’s Star." or something like that. I would then find a star map that lists the “accepted” name, and doctor it so it shows the name you picked. Give that to your wife, then take her outside, point the star out and let her know that you will forever know that star is your son’s star. I did that for our mother on the Mother’s Day after my brother was killed by a drunk driver. So, to our family, Polaris is known as “Greg’s Star”. The funny thing is, even though I know it has no meaning to anyone outside our family, and I came up with the idea, I get warm, peaceful feelings whenever I’m out at night and I spot it. Sometimes I’ll talk to it as a way of “talking” to Greg whenever I’m trying to sort out an issue that I would have gone to him for.

I would then donate the money you would have spent on the International Star Registry to the charity you wish in your son’s name. This way, you can make a deeply personal memorial for your son, but you can still donate the money to try to help others.

critter42

15

Salaam aleikum DrumGod,

May I offer you my sympathy with your loss. We lost 3 children so I can imagine how you and your wife must feel.

We decided to keep them in our memory by financially “adopt” children who enter life in very difficult circumstances are in need of any help they can get.
Making donations to such an organisation in fact not only helps the children you financially adopt. It most often helps their whole family or even the whole community they live in.
I hope you would consider this option as a meaningful way to honour your child.

Salaam. A
[/QUOTE]

I was going to suggest the same thing. I can’t think of a more appropriate way to honor your child than to help another live.

My best wishes to you and your wife, BTW.

16

You can look up your local musea, planetaria, and other astronomical non-profit organizations: Many of them have some sort of dedicatory donation program. For instance, the Cleveland Museum of Natural History is “selling” stars in the Hanna Star Dome, one of the oldest planetaria in the country. It has as much or more meaning as a star “bought” from one of the star registry countries, and you’d be helping a worthwhile cause.

17

“Salaam aleikum, Drum God”

Thank you for the very kind words in this thread. I must admit that I need to find a dictionary for the above phrase. Is it Hebrew?

I like all of the suggestions and I will share them with my wife.

I should amend my user name in this thread, as the appellation “God” is a bit inappropriate here. My name is actually David. If there is anything I have learned in the past many months is that I actually control very little in this world.

Thank you so much for your help, kind people. Even in the mysterious cyber-world of the SDMB, it is nice to know that people are thinking, even remotely, of our son Hayden’s brief time with us. It is stragnely comforting.

18

Close; it’s Arabic. It translates to “Peace be upon you”, and it’s often used as a greeting. I used to know the appropriate reply, but if I tried to type it, I’d mangle the spelling (it translates to “Peace also to you”).

19

Asteroids are named by consensus of an international committee. The lobbying effort that would be required to get one named is probably not worth it. Time is best spent elsewhere.