A star by any other name is not so sweet to astronomers
Television's Johnny Carson has one. So does Actor Richard Burton. Pop Singers Barry Manilow and Engelbert Humperdinck have two apiece. The Queen Mother got one as an 80th-birthday gift. Charles and Diana, the Prince and Princess of Wales, received a pair when they were married. What do these luminaries have in common? Along with thousands of lesser mortals, each has had his or her name appended to at least one star—of the heavenly kind—in what seems to be the most far-out fad since astrology.
A personal star, twinkling in the night, there to gaze at and wish upon, guiding one's fortunes: it hardly seems possible. But it really is, at least according to an enterprising Toronto-based outfit called the International Star Registry. Founded by Canadian Advertising Man Ivor Downie, 44, the company will assign a name, any respectable name, including those of rock and royalty, to a star in any requested constellation for a $30 fee (credit cards accepted). As proof of the cosmic christening, the registry sends back a star-spangled certificate with the orb's new name inscribed on it, together with charts ocating it in the sky and assurances that the name will be locked up safely in a vault in Switzerland and kept on file forever in the Library of Congress. Says Phylis Mosele, 50, an affable mother of twelve who runs the registry's U.S. branch in Northfield, Ill., with her husband
John, 51: "It's a perfectly valid system."
Astronomers think otherwise. Some refer to the mail-order operation as "Stargate" and "Starscam." Says Swarthmore College Astronomer Wulff Heintz, without even the trace of a twinkle: "You could call it a fraud." What irritates professional stargazers is that the self-styled registry, which began in 1979 and "sold" more than 30,000 stars last year, is invading turf that has long been their special preserve. By astronomical tradition, only a few dozen of the brightest stars, such as Sirius, Vega, Betelgeuse and Aldebaran, are called by proper names, many of which derive from early Arab astronomy. The remainder are listed in various catalogues, drily and unromantically, by initials and numbers that tell astronomers such no-nonsense things as their position, type and magnitude (brightness).