General Considerations
Some of the things that we take into consideration include: date, time, location of the event, your preferences regarding constellations, mythology, star colors, the nature of the event, when and from what location you wish to be able to see your star in the sky and so on.
We’ve worked up a few scenarios so that you might better understand some of the variables involved. These examples should give you a better idea of what to consider in thinking about your star.
Examples
Here are a few examples of how we picked stars for some customers.
Birthdays
Customer #1 wants to commemorate the birth date of his brother. His brother was born on August 15, 1978 at 8:20 AM in New Brunswick, NJ. This customer lives in the suburbs (New Brunswick, NJ, USA) and cannot see many stars even on the best of clear nights but does wish to find his star from home. His best view of the sky is to the south.
At that date, time and location there were several bright stars overhead or nearly overhead – even though it was daytime and no stars (except the sun, of course) were visible. Capella was nearly directly overhead and would be a good choice but Betelguese is also a bright star and would be easy to spot looking more toward the south - so Beteguese it is.
Weddings
Customer #2 wanted to give a commemorative star as part of a wedding gift. The couple got married in the afternoon in Tampa Florida on December 1, 2006. The couple will be living in Tampa and the friend figures that they’ll want to look from that location. Assuming that the couple has a decent view to the north, a good commemorative star would be Mizar in the handle of the Big Dipper. At the approximate time of the ceremony this star is in the north fairly close to overhead. This is also a double star, which makes it suitable for celebrating the marriage of two people. Bear in mind, however, that this star will be best positioned to be seen in May 10:00 PM or later. This is not a star that they can see well on December 1st nights.
Graduations
Customer #3 wanted to celebrate his daughter’s graduation that takes places June 6, 2007. The time of the ceremony does not particularly matter but he wanted to point out the commemorative star to her on the evening of her graduation. Let’s assume that she graduated from a school in Virginia. It is summertime so the sky does not get dark enough to see stars until fairly late at night. In this case we directed him to the bright red star Arcturus in the constellation Bootes.
Selection Involves Many Things
As you can see, there is no single way to select a commemorative star. The more specific that you can be with your information and preferences, the more likely it is that we can direct you to an appropriate commemorative star.
Date and Time
Is there a specific date to use in selecting your star? Is there a specific time of day? If there is no specific time, please choose between 10:00 AM, 4:00 PM or 10:00 PM.
North South East West
Is there a direction in which it is easier for you to look to see your star?
Location
What is the location (country, state, city, longitude and latitude (if you know it)) at which you will most often look to see your star? Is this different from when and where the commemorative event took place? Which is more important – the original event information or the information about when and where you want to observe the star?
Sky Quality
Is this a location at which you can see the Milky Way? In other words, is this a location where you can often see many stars in the night sky or only a few?
Most Important
Please be sure to let me know what is the most important consideration that we should use in finding the most appropriate commemorative star.
