About

Our founder

I’m Dr Laura Driessen, a professional astronomer.

I was inspired to make this website when I was researching for an article for The Conversation. I knew that there were websites claiming to sell stars and that you can’t officially buy or sell stars, but I became especially frustrated when I learned more.

This website claim to have sold thousands of stars for anything from $40AUD per star to over $100AUD. That’s potentially millions of dollars of profits selling somthing you cannot sell.

These websites capitalise on our emotions and a really lovely, special idea. It would be wonderful to be able to officially name a star after a lover one.

However, there are many issues with that. There aren’t many stars visible to the naked eye, only a few thousand. And many of those stars already have historical and cultural names.

Even if we extend to stars we cant see with our naked eye, there are only around 1.5 billion known stars. Many fewer than there are people in the world.

Many of these websites do say somewhere (often hidden in the FAQs) that the naming is not official. But they are misleading in implying that you (1) can name stars and (2) that you’re the only one naming a star.

Our mission

Or really, my mission. Since this is a one-woman show.

My mission is to prevent people from the disappointment of paying to name something with really lovely, sentimental intentions just to find out that their purchase is not what they thought.

I also provide a way to symbolicly name stars.

Looking up at the night sky at a specific star and remembering a loved one, a special event, a romantic partner, or a beloved pet is a wonderful thing. And through this website, you can now do that for free.