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Re: (meteorobs) Buying A Star for Someone- off topic!!

Dear Joe,
   Thanks for your dose of reality!  This is what I thought all along, but did
not have the heart to tell this to the inquiring faculty member.     Felix

---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: Skywayinc@aol.com
Reply-To: meteorobs@jovian.com
Date: Fri, 7 Jan 2000 18:34:09 EST

>In a message dated 01/07/2000 5:24:25 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
>HobrockS@go-redbirds.com writes:
>
><< the stars are not for sale. >>
>
>This hit a "hot spot" with me!
>
>    I occasionally have to answer phone quires to New York's Hayden 
>Planetarium.  I wish I had a buck for every phone call that comes in asking 
>for information on ". . . how I can I buy a star?"  Bottom line is, of 
>course, that it is a S-C-A-M !  The company that has been perpetrating this 
>fraud (for 20 years) has managed to find a legal loophole by stating in their 
>radio commercials that "your name will be published in a book that will be 
>copyrighted."  Some years back they claimed that their registry book would be 
>placed in the Library of Congress (that backfired on them when their 
>application was returned).  
>
>    When I tell people that this company cannot be sanctioned by the 
>Planetarium because the star names are not officially recognized by any 
>scientific institution most are stunned.  It is especially sad to receive a 
>phone call from somebody who has just lost a loved one and wants very much to 
>commemorate that person with a star in the sky.  
>
>    For your "registration fee" (I think it's $48), you get a certificate, a 
>book on the stars and a star chart indicating where your star is located (in 
>most cases, "your star" is something like magnitude +18.4 -- good luck in 
>finding THAT and pointing it out to family and friends). 
>
>    There is actually a small percentage of people who, even after hearing my 
>explanation, still insist on getting more information on the star-name 
>company (buttressing P.T. Barnum's famous quote).  When that happens, I just 
>tell them to call one of the big NYC radio stations, because this company 
>advertises on just about all of them . . . but they wont get any helpful info 
>from me. 
>
>-- joe rao 
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