Jane,
While I agree that companies should be more up front about the fact
that astronomers won't start using the name they selected for a star, a
similar thing happened to me recently that gave me some perspective on
buying stars.
A local art magazine here in New Mexico published an article on my
astrophotography. I received a call from a man who had purchased a
star for his wife and wanted a picture of it. It is a magnitude 12.4
star in Andromeda. I explained to him what sort of picture I can take,
and we agreed on a price. The astronomy gods let me have the picture,
low in the west just after sunset. That's unusual because the wind or
clouds usually mess up that part of the sky for me. Anyway I got the
picture and made a nice 8x10 color print in the darkroom and sold it to
him.
After finishing the exposure, I put in the eyepiece and took a look. A
12.4 isn't a real impressive star, even in a C14, but sure enough it's
there, and at least in Jesse's mind, it belongs to his wife. So I'm
left with two impressions, buying a star is a sweet thing to do for
your sweetie, and it's good for my business. And I'm sure the company
that bought the star is right now beaming a message in that direction
to the occupants of that solar system saying "GET OFF".
If your contact wants a beautiful 8x10 color photo of her poodle's
star, with about a 1/2 degree field, I'm at thurmond@No-Spam
--Rick Thurmond
www.coyoteskies.com