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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!ihdev!rastaman
From: rastaman@ihdev.UUCP (Gus Anthozoan)
Newsgroups: net.consumers
Subject: Re: International Star Registry - A Clever Scam?
Message-ID: <430@ihdev.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 4-Dec-85 10:30:07 EST
Article-I.D.: ihdev.430
Posted: Wed Dec  4 10:30:07 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 5-Dec-85 08:39:58 EST
References: <528@cylixd.UUCP> <4632@alice.UUCP> <285@pyuxii.UUCP>
Reply-To: rastaman@ihdev.UUCP (Gus Anthozoan)
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 27

In article <285@pyuxii.UUCP> tw8023@pyuxii.UUCP (T Wheeler) writes:

>... If you will think about it, only the tiniest fraction of stars have
>names or designations.  What they do is put your name on an, as
>yet, unnamed star and include it in the international registry.
>That's not too hard to do since anyone with a telescope can name
>things not previously named in the firmament. ...  The name can be
>recognized officialy by sending it to the keepers of the 
>registry, wherever they are. ... Go ahead and plunk down the money 
>and get a star named after yourself. ... We could name stars from 
>now till doomsday and never even scratch the surface.  Besides, 
>what sounds better, T45l6 or the Joseph P. Scudsworth star?  
>Have fun, it is not a rip off.

Bullshit. Bullshit. Bullshit.  Talk to somebody at your
local planetarium or astro department.  Or post this on net.astro
and let the boys at Texas set you straight if you don't believe me.  
Sure, any yahole can call any star anything he wants;  the problem is 
that it doesn't count unless sanctioned by the IAU. (Before I sold out 
I was an astronomer; this garbage torques me off more than the daily 
horoscopes.) The people can, of course, copyright their list and
get a copy put in the Library of Congress, but that's not the
same thing as having the designation officially sanctioned.
(By the way, I don't believe that any catalog has a "T" designation.)

	Jeff Johnson
	ihnp4!ihdev!rastaman