Questions and plain answers

No. Only the International Astronomical Union (IAU) gives stars the names astronomers use, and it does not sell them. What you get here is a keepsake: a real star, the name you choose for it, and the facts to find it. We say this on every page and on the keepsake itself.

Yes. Every star comes from the Bright Star Catalogue, a list of the roughly 9,000 stars you can see with your eyes on a dark night. The keepsake gives its real catalogue numbers, so anyone can look it up in a star app or a book.

Every star we offer can be seen without a telescope from a dark place. The brighter ones are easy even from a town. The keepsake comes with a card that says which month and time to look, which way to face and how high up it is.

The Star Keepsake is US$12: a keepsake page and a "how to find it" card, as a PDF and as pictures. The Star Keepsake + Sky Map is US$15: the same, plus a poster-size map of the whole sky on the night you chose. Both are downloads you can print at home or at a print shop.

Yes. No one can own a star or its name, so we do not pretend to keep a list of who named what. Your keepsake is yours; the star belongs to everyone.

No. The names, the message, the date and the place stay on your own device. The keepsake is drawn in your browser. When you pay, only the product and the star’s catalogue number go to the payment page.

No. Both keepsakes are downloads only. You can print them at home on A4 or US Letter paper (choose "fit to page"), or take the files to a print shop.

On Stripe’s secure payment page. We never see your card. Any sales tax or VAT where you live is shown before you pay.

Refunds: 30 days, no questions asked. Email us within 30 days with the email address you paid with, and we will refund you in full.

Yes. The page you land on after paying keeps working: bookmark it. On the same device and browser, it remembers the names. On another device, you can type them again.

Something short that means something to the person: their name, a nickname, a shared joke, or a word like "Hope". It fits best under 25 letters, and you can use up to 40.

Hold it over your head: the middle is straight up and the edge is the horizon all round you. North is at the top, so east is on the left. Bigger dots are brighter stars.

Yes, for stars. We work out each star’s place from its catalogue position with the standard formulas astronomers use, and test the results against the US Naval Observatory and a planetarium program. The Moon and planets are not shown.