Hi All,

While getting into the spirit of Valentines Day, I got rather excited
when I heard that I could name a star after my girlfriend! After some
searching on the topic, and several helpful replies from the astronomy
community, I found that this is apparently too good to be true.

Basically, I found a web site at...

        http://www.new-kewl.com/star.html

They sound rather sincere about the whole thing, but give a misleading
impression. In other words, people are paying fifty dollars to have a
star named after their valentine. For this fifty dollars, they are never
actually recognized by any real astronomers, but get their name on a list
which (they say) is maintained by the Smithsonian?!? From what I've been
told, no one really cares about this list, so many people are paying lots
of money and not really getting what they thought they paid for! I
normally wouldnt post this here, but since the Smithsonian name was
mentioned, I was wondering what this is all about. Anyone know more about
this?

                                        Best Wishes,
                                        Arthur