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(meteorobs) Re: Buying A Star + more
Felix is thinking about the International Star Registry. For just 49 big
ones (dollars) you receive a real bargain -- a parchment map to help you
locate your star, plus an introductory book about astronomy. A few years
ago these name recordings were being stored in a Swiss vault, thus making it
very official. Nowadays the big books of recordings go to the U.S. Patent
Office. I don't understand how a patent would fit this situation. The ISR
advertises on talk radio every year around Christmas, and I have also heard
ads around Valentine's Day the past couple of years. Art Bell & his wife
both have a star -- they carry the ad more than other shows. The whole
problem : most people will hear the ad and think a star can be named after
them to be carried into posterity by science. But science has nothing to do
with this operation so you are best off ignoring the ads and saving a nice
piece of money.
The name-a-star gag has been going on for a long time. The earliest I
learned of it was in 1981 while visiting a Southern Cross AS observing
session outside of Miami. One young adult female brought her chart along,
and I found her star, a 10th-magnitude beauty, within a couple of minutes.
Lew's comment,
>Oh, I've never really observed meteors nude -
brings back to mind the night in 1981 July when 5 of us were observing from
the Keys. Present at the Bahia Honda Bridge observing site were Felix
Martinez, Lew Gramer, Brian Risley, Mark Adams, and this writer. We got
there one night before 11PM for meteors, and found 3 young people already
there : 2 girls and a boy. They were strangers to each other, had no
lights, and we set up for observing anyway, but they kept us entertained for
a couple of hours. We couldn't go out on the bridge any more -- it had
deteriorated so one section was removed to block access. A heavy power
cable (probably a bundle of smaller cables with one outer wrapping) passed
not far over our heads and crossed the gap. The boy was drunk. My first
thought was that he was wearing white swim trunks. After a good 20 minutes
had passed, I realized he had nothing on at all ! His derriere was shining
by the light of the summer Milky Way (Cygnus north of the zenith and
Sagittarius high in the south). It was so dark that we were slow to learn
of his predicament. He wanted to get to the isolated part of the bridge,
and we're 40 feet above the water ; he kept saying, "I want that big
m________ to boost me up to the cable." ( Big m____ was a referral to Brian,
the largest of us all.) An unconscious death wish. He already had picked
up a sea urchin but wasn't feeling the results of that yet due to alcohol.
Only casual observing was possible until they all left, and we were plenty
relieved.
Norman
Norman W. McLeod III
Staff Advisor
American Meteor Society
Fort Myers, Florida
nmcleod@peganet.com
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