How many stars are there in the Staracle.com-database?
Where does all the data about the stars come from and how accurate is it?
There are several star catalogs that have been created over the
past decades and centuries. Our data base is a compilation of
several star catalogs. The most comprehensive catalogs that served
as a basis are the UCAC3 catalog and the
Tycho-2 star catalog.
Together,they both comprise more than 100 million stars in the night sky.
This data was amended by data from the
Hipparcos catalog, which contains more than 100,000 stars together with
high-precision position information.
Both the Tycho-2 and the Hipparcos star catalog are the result of the
European Space Agency's astrometric mission called Hipparcos. The
catalogs are the result of several years of precise observations of
the Hipparcos-satellite.
The data in our data base (such as position information, constellation information, magnitude,
distance, etc.) is therefore as precise as the information in these
catalogs.
Why is it free to name a star at Staracle.com while other web sites charge money?
The answer is simple: Nobody owns the stars, therefore nobody should sell them.
Moreover, nobody should sell star names. The only official authority to name stars
is the International Astronomical Union (IAU). And they won't let you name a star.
Therefore, any star naming service you find on the Internet
will simply keep your name in their private database, but it will never be the star's official name.
If you don't believe this, read
this article on wired.com.
Also,
this star naming FAQ gives a really good overview of the topic.
Therefore, naming a star is a pure symbolic act. It is
just for fun!
And that's also why naming a star is totally free at
Staracle.com.
We do it just for fun!
Staracle.com offers an interactive star chart that allows everybody to find your
star. At Staracle.com, every star has a profile page, and you will get a personal login to
the profile page of the star you name. You can post messages on this profile page,
and you can add other stars as friends thus creating your personal stellar network.
Read what's going on in your network and comment on posts of your friends.
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