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Name dropping: want to be a star? If you think that a star can be named after you, and that once one is, it's all official, think again. The whole commercial "star registry" charade is awkward for astronomers.

From: Skeptical Inquirer  |  Date: 9/1/2006  |  Author: Plait, Philip

But above and beyond there's still one name left over And that is the name that you never will guess The name that no human research can discover But the cat himself knows and will never confess.

--T.S. Elliot, "The Naming of Cats"

In the late fall, the constellation Andromeda looms high above the horizon. It's not a terribly bright constellation: the stars are faint enough that even low lights from a nearby town or city can wash them out.

But in ancient times, when ...

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