Some commercial companies purport to allow you to name a star. Usually, for a few tens of dollars, they'll send you a fancy looking certificate and a chart from a star atlas showing the precise ...

They'll send you a certificate and instructions for finding your star in the night sky, but the IAU will have no record of name you've bestowed upon your star, nor will the organization recognize it.

Many companies claim to sell a chance to name a star, butthese are gimmicks ... and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She covers everything ...