You mean to tell me that CANIS MAJOR, RA6h54m42.48 D-13 43'45.37'
registered to Patrick Lewis is a fraud!!! You should see the tears welling
up in my eyes right now ;-) .
Last year for my Birthday, my wife lovingly presented me with a parchment
certificate declaring that a star had been named in my name. My wife was
so proud of what she had done that I didn't have the heart to tell her this
was a scam -- ignorance is bliss. The fact that she also gave me a
telescope made the whole thing more palatable. I'll even go as far as to
suggest that her actions rekindled my childhood fascination with astronomy.
In large part due to the scam, I have learned more about astronomy in the
past 10 months, than in all prior years combined. True, the money would
have been far better spent on a Sky 2000 atlas.
What has me laughing out loud right now is that I have a star named after
me ;-) that is more suited to a poodle than myself.
Hey, when I start showing up at some of the observation sights (Coe,
Coyote, and Montebello) will you folks stick me with the "pet name"/handle
POODLE? :-)
Pat Lewis
uopy2k@No-Spam
At 10:10 AM 4/1/2003 -0800, Jane Houston Jones wrote:
> A few months ago a lady called me on the telephone. She told me her name
> and where she worked and then told me about her beloved poodle which had
> just died the week before. I kept listening. Why was she telling me this
> dog tale, I wondered?
>
>"Can you help me find the star named after my dead poodle?" she finally
>asked. "I have a framed certificate, a book and a chart."
>
>"Stars are not named after poodles" I told her, a little sternly, but with
>compassion, since her poodle had just died. "You bought a nice piece of
>paper and a nice frame, but companies selling frames and certificates have
>no right and no authority to name stars."
>
>"Have you tried calling the company that sold you the frame and asked them
>to show you your star?" I queried. She replied "No," rather glumly.
>
>I told her how these companies rip off vulnerable people, naming stars
>after children, beloved aunts and dead poodles. And then nice astronomers
>had to break the bad news to these people that no star was really named
>after their favorite animal, vegetable or boyfriend. And this made them
>feel bad and made them think astronomers are unhelpful and even mean. I
>told her there were even competing star seller companies that sold the
>exact same star to different people. So the star "Aunt Helen" could also
>be named after "Spike," I explained.
>
>Well, she was a nice lady. Someone else had bought the star for her
>poodle. I asked her for her email address so we could talk some more. In
>the first note I sent to her, I offered her a deal. Read these reports
>about these star scam companies, and promise me not to buy any stars or
>recommend this rip-off to others. "Read and promise, then we'll talk," I
>offered.
>
>So I sent her some information like this:
>http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,49345,00.html
>
>http://www.ras.ucalgary.ca/~gibson/starnames/isr_news.html
>
>And Ask Cecil: http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_385.html
>
>After she read the information, she called back, agreed to the terms and I
>told her I'd do what I could to locate her star, but no promises. I asked
>for any information she received. She sent me this from her star
>chart: Monoceros RA6h24m54.29s D6 19'42.35"
>
>So I booted up my computer and brought up SkyMap Pro 9. I found many
>stars near the location, and none exactly at the coordinates she sent to
>me. So I got the chance to tell her a little about precession and asked
>if she knew what epoch her start chart coordinates were from. Of course
>she had no idea. After some more correspondence, she mailed me the "star
>chart" she received. And I had to chuckle... the chart showed a huge 30
>degree square swath of sky, including all of the constellation Orion and
>plenty of Monoceros. A circle identified the dead poodle "star." The
>circle, about 3 degrees in diameter showed three stars brighter than
>magnitude 9, and dozens of fainter stars. The one that matched her
>coordinates best was magnitude 9.63 Tycho 145-1922-1, at RA 06h 24m
>59.5279s Dec. +06 19'.47.743".
>
>She wanted to come to a star party right away to see her star. I invited
>here to Lake Sonoma on the night I located it myself. I invited here to
>Fremont Peak. I explained Monoceros won't be visible much longer. We
>agreed to get together this coming Saturday night, April 5th on Mount
>Tamalpais. I explained to her there were many lovely stars and
>constellations named officially after dogs and that while I will be happy
>to show her the area of Tycho 145-1922-1 I think she will be happier to
>look at the celestial canines Canis Major, the great dog, Canis Minor, the
>lesser dog. and even Canes Venatici, the hunting dogs when she looks into
>the sky to remember her poodle.
>
>Those constellations were truly named after dogs and her poodle would be
>happier romping with them than with a bogus dog star which already has a
>name: Tycho 145-1922-1.
>
>Together we will view brilliant white Sirius, the real dog star in Canis
>Major, mellow yellow Procyon in Canis Minor and regal Cor Caroli, in Canes
>Venatici, the major dog stars in the canine corps of the sky. And we'll
>take a look at mag 9.63 Tycho 145-1922-1 while we are in the area.
>
>Although this is a true story, Happy April 1, everybody!
>
>Woof Woof! Jane
>
>--
>Jane Houston Jones
>San Rafael, CA
>jane@No-Spam
>http://www.whiteoaks.com
>
>