I helped an old friend with her new site. It's called My Toronto Scoop and she posts all sort of deals in the GTA. Check it out, won't you?
I saw she recently posted a promotion from one of those star naming companies. Basically, you adopt a star and give it any name you want. It sounds like a pretty cool gift, doesn't it?
The thing is, it's a scam. You can't buy star naming rights.
As an international scientific organization, the IAU dissociates itself entirely from the commercial practice of "selling" fictitious star names or "real estate" on other planets or moons in the Solar System. Accordingly, the IAU maintains no list of the (several competing) enterprises in this business in individual countries of the world. Readers wanting to contact such enterprises despite the explanations given below should search commercial directories in their country of origin.
Go ahead and name that star, but don't give these companies a penny. Your certificate won't be worth the paper it's printed on.
