Star Name Registry Blog

Cute Valentine’s Day Ideas

1) Ice skating. Go out for an hour skating at one of the many rinks popping up across the country. There’s not a lot that’s more romantic than skating around hand in hand. Make sure to grab a hot chocolate together afterwards to complete the experience. 2) Homemade meal. This may be a bit of a c...

Out of this world astronaut selfies.

Thomas Pesquet French ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet took this amazing selfie on his first spacewalk on the 17th of January 2017.   First space selfie ever NASA astronaut Buzz Aldrin took this photo in 1966 whilst performing a EVA (extravehicular activity) during the...

Vinegar Valentines

Vinegar valentines are not the sweet nothings you expect to receive on the day dedicated to love they are in fact insult based greetings cards printed on cheap one sided paper featuring grotesque caricatures meant to insult or amuse.   They caused a stir through all social levels not merely th...

Top stargazing locations in Wales for St Dwynwen’s Day

The Brecon Beacons  The Brecon Beacons became Wales’ first “Dark Sky Reserve”, 5 years ago. There are multiple places around Brecon where you can view the night sky in all its glory, one of those being from the Visitor Centre. What also makes Brecon the ideal stargazing location is its distance fr...

Top Ever Space Movies

Top Ever Space Movies 1) 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) This iconic and epic science fiction film was produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick in 1968. Written by both Stanley Kubrick and legendary novelist Arthur C Clarke it was inspired by one of Clarke’s short stories (“The Sentinel” – 1951). T...

Humans are made of stardust

It is a commonly known myth that people are made of stardust and now a study has confirmed it. The survey conducted on 150,000 stars has revealed that the galaxy and humans share 97% of the same atoms. The elements of life on earth, which are usually found towards the centre of the galaxy, can...

Top Stargazing Moments in Films/TV

1) A Walk to Remember This coming of age romance staring Shane West and Mandy Moore has one of the most famous stargazing scenes in cinema. In this scene, Landon (Shane West) goes stargazing with Jamie (Mandy Moore) and surprises her by revealing that he’s also named a star after her. It’s a bea...

The mysteries of Mercury

The mysteries of Mercury It is easy to forget that the other planets in our solar system are not just dead lumps of rock, but this is definitely not the case. Particularly for the planet at the centre, Mercury. Mythology: Its unbelievable speed Mercury is the closest planet to the s...

Cassini Enters Its Grand Finale!

The Cassini Spacecraft (launched in 1997) has been orbiting the planet Saturn since 2004. Its full name is the Cassini-Huygens Spacecraft since it was named after the astronomers Giovanni Cassini and Christiaan Huygens. A collaboration between NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), E...

The Weird and Wonderful IAU Naming Conventions

The IAU is the international organisation which is charge of designating celestial bodies and their features. To assist in the process of naming these objects and features the IAU has developed an incredible list of rules and conventions. Here are just a few of these, sometimes odd, rules. Enjoy!...

Top Weird Named Galaxies

Space is weird but we also give objects in space some strange names. Here’s Star Name Registry’s list of the weirdest named galaxies. Enjoy! 1) The Tadpole Galaxy The Tadpole galaxy is a disrupted barred spiral galaxy which is located approximately 420 million light years away in the constellati...

Fool Proof Festive Tips

Christmas is only just around the corner! At Star Name Registry we know this can be a busy and stressful time of the year so we’ve complied a list of our top fool proof tips to help you have a fantastic festive season. If you can think of any more please don’t hesitate to add them below in the com...