Do you know the International Star Registry?
The idea may seem farfetched, or even look like a scam … Can we actually buy a star on the internet?
Founded in Toronto in 1979, SRI markets various products, such as jewelery, plush toys, and offers customers, whether they are famous or anonymous, to name a star in their name. Perhaps you remember the Little Prince, of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry? The boy deplores the fact that adults give to stars too serious names, successions of letters and numbers belonging to a simple code. The International Star Registry therefore offers to those who wish to name one of these innumerable stars anonymous, visible only to the telescope. The buyer receives a star certificate, with the coordinates of his star, and his name is added to the register published by the SRI.
Buy a star
There are many criticisms of the International Star Registry. The International Astronomy Union is the only organization authorized to designate the names of stars and stellar bodies. It warns potential SRI clients of the lack of legal recognition of such a gift . You do not own this star, scientists will not use the name you chose in their publications, and will never exploit the resources …
And yet, it’s hard for me to think that buying a star is a scam … if you know the true value and scope of such a gift.
An accessible, meaningful gift
In an ultra-consumer society, where many objects can wear out too quickly or lack personality, offering a star brings a dreamlike and poetic dimension. All the success of this company – 2 million stars “sold” throughout the world – rests in its share of intangible.
With its DNA and the adventurous values associated with it, from Science Fiction stories to the NASA space epic, with the magic that invites us to follow in the footsteps of Pierrot and Colombine, with filigree , The Little Prince’s wheat-colored hair, space has its own brand universe. If the star can not be the property of its purchaser, the emotional charm is strong: how to look at the sky at night, without thinking of the star that bears its name above and especially without thinking of the person who Has offered?
Offer a star, if you want to surprise a close person. Know that this present will have no legal value: is it really important?
Poetry that would fit into the digital world?
What if SRI were to develop its digital services? If I was offered a star, I would like to share this present with my friends on Facebook, Tumblr or Youtube. I would even like Google Sky to offer an application with the stars referred to as ISR, an alternative without legal foundation to the IAU names, but seducing the anonymous and dreamers that we are … These are ideas in the Air to them to play!
