With Valentine's day nearby the "International Star Registry" scammers are out in full-force on the radio again. A co-worker bought one of their "name a star" scams a few years ago and was so happy with his photocopied page from an old Skalnate-Pleso atlas that had an arrow pointing to a 10th mag star - labelled with his wife's name, the Epoch 1950 coordinates for the star, and the $5 booklet on astronomy that came with it. I didn't have the heart to tell him that he had been ripped off. I've emailed these people before and told them what I thought of their operation - their reply is that they are sorry you feel that way. Part of me says that people have a "right to be stupid" so I shouldn't worry about it. But, now these scammers are asking for $54! - which in my book is real money. So, part of me thinks that someone should at least step in and make them add a disclaimer that they have no real right to name anything. I also think they give a bad name to astronomy, in general. Well - I feel a bit better now having at least vented this a bit. Clear skies, Dale.
Dale Hooper wrote:
I've emailed these people before and told them what I thought of their operation - their reply is that they are sorry you feel that way.
Others have not received such a "kind" reply. There was a thread on the planetarium list serve a while back where folks were reporting being served with legal papers for publicly saying bad things about the program. Patrick
I wouldn't waste my money on getting a star named after me (or my wife). I am saving up so that I can buy a parcel of land on the Moon... -----Original Message----- From: utah-astronomy-bounces+pjohnson=xmission.com@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:utah-astronomy-bounces+pjohnson=xmission.com@mailman.xmission.co m] On Behalf Of Dale Hooper Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 2004 2:34 PM To: utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Fifty-four bucks! With Valentine's day nearby the "International Star Registry" scammers are out in full-force on the radio again. A co-worker bought one of their "name a star" scams a few years ago and was so happy with his photocopied page from an old Skalnate-Pleso atlas that had an arrow pointing to a 10th mag star - labelled with his wife's name, the Epoch 1950 coordinates for the star, and the $5 booklet on astronomy that came with it. I didn't have the heart to tell him that he had been ripped off. I've emailed these people before and told them what I thought of their operation - their reply is that they are sorry you feel that way. Part of me says that people have a "right to be stupid" so I shouldn't worry about it. But, now these scammers are asking for $54! - which in my book is real money. So, part of me thinks that someone should at least step in and make them add a disclaimer that they have no real right to name anything. I also think they give a bad name to astronomy, in general. Well - I feel a bit better now having at least vented this a bit. Clear skies, Dale. _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.utahastronomy.com
Augh! I like West Wing and tonight they've got a sub plot that's astronomy related. Most of it has gone quite well. Even the images shown through a scope looked pretty real. Nice talk about human missions to Mars. But then there was a conversation about star naming. ISR was even mentioned by name with no mention of star naming not being real. I'm disappointed. Patrick
participants (3)
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Dale Hooper -
Patrick Wiggins -
Paul C Johnson