How does one go about naming a star for someone?

I'm really big into celestials and space and stars and all that and I think it would be the most romantic thing to name a star after/for someone.

How does one go about naming a star for someone?
The best way to name a star for someone is to just go ahead and name it, and tell the person. Don't waste your money buying a star name from some company which has absolutely no authority to name stars...nobody but you will ever know that name anyway. Some planetariums and astronomy clubs name stars as a fundraising project. It's still not official, but at least the money goes to a good cause.





The only objects named after people are geographic features on planets and moons (named after dead scientists), comets (named after their discoverer), and asteroids (named by their discoverers). A few deep sky objects are named after their discoverers, such as Hubble's Variable Nebula and Kemble's Cascade, but these aren't really official names.
Reply:Yeah, except it's not real. The group that actually names the stars, the International Astronomical Union, names them with numbers. There's no way to really name a star after someone. There are all the companies out there that will take your money and sell you a certificate claiming they named a star after you, but it's not real. It's just for entertainment, it's worth as much as if they sent you a certificate saying that you now owned Manhattan. So nothing at all.
Reply:Most stars get nerdy and boring names like GI 463 or other letter and number combinations and are named by the IAU.





Many stars in our night sky have ararbic names in origin.





But sadly, I don't think you can buy a name or anything like that. People will take your money, but the star won't be recognized by the name you chose.





Your best bet is to discover a new star, or even a comet and name it what you want!
Reply:Sorry but you can't.





Space objects are named by the International Astronomical Union





http://www.iau.org/





The IAU frequently receives requests from individuals who want to buy star names or name stars after other persons. Some commercial enterprises purport to offer such services for a fee. However, such "names" have no formal or official validity whatever: A few bright stars have ancient, traditional Arabic names, but otherwise stars have just catalogue numbers and positions on the sky.





As an international scientific organization, the IAU dissociates itself entirely from the commercial practice of "selling" fictitious star names or "real estate" on other planets or moons in the Solar System.





http://www.iau.org/buying_star_names.244...





What you can do is go to any one of a number of places that "sell" star names. (International Star Regestry or ISR is one). You will give them a fair amount of money (like $50USD). They will send you a pretty certificate you can hang on the wall (they are pretty I've seen them) with the coordinates to a really obscure star you need a good telescope to see. Some of them will even write the name in a book that (I am told) they keep in a safe deposit box somewhere... so it sounds real important, but it really isn't.





I'm going to quote from a really good article I found on this at





http://www.csicop.org/si/2006-05/stars.h...





"But the star isn鈥檛 really named after that person, and certainly no astronomer uses that name for the star. Again, this wouldn鈥檛 normally be a problem (as long as such deception is okay by you), except that there are times when the people involved go to an observatory and ask to see the star named after their dead son or daughter.





Imagine being an astronomer during an observatory鈥檚 public night, happily showing people the wonders of the universe through the telescope, then having someone ask you to see the star they named after their daughter who died tragically. They only have the name they gave it, not the position or any other name that might be useful. Worse, they really, honestly think that every astronomer has access to the ISR and can easily find their star. What do you do, tell the people they were lied to, or deceived, crushing them? Or do you keep quiet, spare their raw feelings, and perpetuate the lie by showing them some random star?





Many astronomers don鈥檛 have to imagine this. It鈥檚 happened to them. One astronomer, Bob Martino, the assistant director of the Perkins Observatory at Ohio Wesleyan University, has had this happen to him at least four times. At first, he learned to swallow his anger and simply point the telescope. Finally though, he couldn鈥檛 take it quietly any more. He put up a Web page railing against the idea of selling stars. He said the practice was fraudulent, a scam (after all, the ISR was found guilty of misleading advertising in New York City). He was pretty clear about how he felt.





In the year 2000, the ISR retaliated. Their legal arm threatened to sue the university, the observatory, its director, and Martino. The ISR, backed by a lot of money, put quite a bit of legal pressure on the planetarium, which did not have a lot of money. Martino took his page down, though he was unhappy about it. Nothing Martino said about the ISR was untrue, just unflattering. "





So I'm sorry but you can't REALLY name a star after anyone. The companies that tell you you can are lying scum.





You can buy a nice certificate and pretend, but don't go thinking anyone other than you will ever know, or care, that you did this.
Reply:be the first to discover it