Naming a star writes your message in the night sky for an everlasting gift to show you care. We believe that a gift with a unique and timeless quality is something that anyone will appreciate.
Each star is ready
to be catalogued with the chosen name
of a friend or loved one. A personal message can be put onto the Certificate
which will remain with them always. Each one is an exclusive novelty gift
to be cherished forever.
Your satisfaction is 100% guaranteed. However if you are not completely satisfied, simply return your Gift Pack within 30 days and we will refund your money. See FAQ
Why name a star?
Naming a star can be a unique gift for someone you care about. What better way of remembering your gift than to look up at the sky and know that you have named a star for them.
Stars have had special meanings for most of human existance, through medevial times through to our current star signs today which are given by the period of your birth in the year. Stars have been used to navigate ships, guide the lost traveller and to give a sense of romance to couples looking up at the night sky - some of which may say Yes! At wish Upon a Star we went to considerable trouble to ensure that the stars are very real. How did we achieve this, exactly what did we use?
"If I could, I would give you the stars" - now that wish can become a reality!
Naming a star is therefore the ultimate gift to someone - it will be there for all of enternity in the sky. It is a gift that will not die it is Eternal, you can't lose it and is worth more than any precious metal!
Each star in our unique data base is real and only ever owned by one unique owner in our Wish upon a Star - Star naming database.
This is achieved with the help of The European Space Agency's Hipparcos satellite and The Tycho-2 Catalogue. The catalogue of more than 2.5 million of
the brightest stars. It is an exact astrometric reference catalogue containing positions and proper motions for every star ever mapped and recorded.
The astrometric reference catalogue contain positions, proper motions, and photometric data for the 2,539,913 of the brightest stars in the sky.
Components of double stars with separations down to 0.8 arcseconds are included. The catalog is 99% complete to V~11.0 and 90% complete to v~11.5.
The Tycho-2 positions and magnitudes are based on the observations collected by the star mapper of the European Space Agency's Hipparcos satellite.
They are the same observations used to compile the Tycho-1 Catalogue (ESA SP-1200, 1997). However, Tycho-2 is much larger and a bit more precise,
because a more advanced reduction technique was applied.
The U.S. Naval Observatory (USNO) first compiled the ACT (Astrographic Catalog/Tycho) Reference Catalog, containing nearly one million stars, by combining the Astrographic Catalogue (AC 2000) with the Tycho-1 Catalogue; the large epoch span between the two catalogs improved the accuracy of proper motions by about an order of magnitude. Tycho-2 now supersedes the ACT.
Proper motions precise to about 2.5 marcsec/a are given as derived from a comparison with the Astrographic Catalogue (AC 2000) and 143 other ground-based astrometric catalogues, all reduced to the Hipparcos celestial coordinate system. There were only about 100,000 stars for which proper motion could not be derived. For stars brighter than Vt=9, the astrometric error is 7 milliarcseconds. The overall error for all stars is 60 milliarcseconds. The observational period was from 1989.85 to 1993.21 and the mean satellite observation epoch is 1991.5.
Photometric accuracy for stars brighter than Vt=9 is 0.013 magnitude; for all stars it is 0.10 magnitude.
The Tycho-2 Catalogue is an astrometric reference catalogue containing positions, proper motions and two-colour photometry for the 2.5 million brightest stars in the sky. The catalogue is based on observations made using the Hipparcos satellite star mapper and is constructed using the same observations that were used to create the original Tycho catalogue. Improved reduction techniques have resulted in a catalogue with significantly more entries and in improved precision data.
Each Star comes with it's own specific accurate Star map to show you the exact position of your star in the night sky.
Reference: The Tycho-2 catalogue of the 2.5 million brightest stars Astronomy & Astrophysics, v.355, p.L27-L30.
Wish Upon a Star provides,Star-charting that will appeal to the serious Stargazer, the serious amateur or professional astronomer and those who just wish to have a real reference for their own star in the sky.
For technical information for the tycho 2 catologue please check out our links page.
This letter contains details proving the authentic naming of your particular unique star.
STAR MAP
The map shows exactly where in relationship to the other stars your named star is.
INSTANT ONLINE MESSAGE
If you order correctly, and white list out email address, seconds after
You Order You will recieve an email from us with full details of your order
Follow the simple instructions and you will be able to view your unique Star & Personal message in our Star Registry Deed Data Base.
PRESENTATION FOLDER
An attractive, protective presentaion folder to keep your Unique Star safe.
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