On 6 Mar 2005 08:57:39 -0800, "Robert Clark"
wrote:

The key is that this really would be the official name and this is the
name that will be used by astronomers in perpetuity...

Bob-

I understand the distinction you are making. I don't know what
"official" really means- or how important it is to potential buyers.
Today, very few of the nomenclature systems in common use have any kind
of IAU sanction- because there is no need. Most stars are identified by
multiple alphanumeric designators, completely different depending on the
catalog. Those catalogs are widely used, but for the most part don't
have any kind of "official" status. You can put together your own
catalog of stars, and if it has some unique feature it will be used
professionally, and show up in SIMBAD, NED and other searchers with no
IAU involvement at all.

If the IAU were to create a sanctioned catalog for stars that identified
them by an individual's name, what would change? No astronomer will ever
use that catalog, given that any star of interest will already be in
another, much more useful catalog. I doubt that SIMBAD and the other
searchers would bother adding the catalog. No scientific paper is going
to use the purchased name.

So the marketing questions are, will anybody actually pay more than what
they already pay to ISR for a star name? Will anyone who wouldn't buy a
star from ISR do so from IAU? My guess is that by the time you allow for
the cost of actually running the program, it wouldn't generate enough
revenue to be worthwhile.

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com