"Kelly Beatty" wrote in message roups.com...
Bob...

Robert Clark wrote:
So could the IAU say offer to officially assign the name of a star
in
perpetuity for say a $1000 fee?

I researched this very question a couple years ago, asking the
officials on the appropirate IAU committee. the answer is that not only
is the IAU not interested assigning common names (for $$ or otherwise),
but also that the IAU has actually never voted to approve any of the
*existing* common names (e.g. Deneb).

the IAU style book does recommend using the Yale Bright Star Catalog as
a source for common names, though.

hope that helps,
Kelly
Thanks for the info. Sounds like they never studied the question. The
first thing to do would be to conduct a poll of professional
astronomers: if it would raise 1 billion dollars YEARLY devoted to
astronomical research alone would you be in favor of assigning
personal names to stars? It it raised $100 million yearly?
Then they need to have a top notch marketing study done about what
would be the appropriate marketing and pricing policies.


Bob Clark