Adopt a Star - Services

A star is the symbol of eternity, life, hope and love. INHABITED SKY allows you to make a unique gift. Make a gift of a star and it will allow you to express your sympathy or respect, sentiment or friendly attitude. After receiving the unusual "gift", a person will perhaps think about you, every time he (or she) looks at the starry sky. If you have already had a star on INHABITED SKY provide the Login Information (User ID and Password) to the person to whom you make the gift of this star. This person will be able to change the Login Information right after and become the sole owner of this star. A star as a gift is a unique opportunity to express one's emotions and thoughts.

"INHABITED SKY" – is a service, which the SKY-MAP.ORG authors provide in gratitude for the assistance in the site's development and design. By "inhabiting" a star, you obtain control of this star's page, on which you will be able to place your own personal or business information. Your information becomes directly related to one of the stars, you can edit as the contents of a pop-up window (visible when the mouse cursor points to stars), so the star's page that appears when you click on a star. All the information, which you place on the site "INHABITED SKY", must satisfy the rules, outlined in "Rules and conditions".

If you have already had a star on INHABITED SKY, you can receive a photo of this star simply by using our system. There are no photos available for some areas of the sky though. To make sure that a star has nice photos, you can use the service "Astro Photo" . Our system allows you to put your star's photograph on either a MUG or a T-SHIRT. We hope the object with the star's image and a memorable inscription can serve as a unique and beautiful gift.

"INHABITED SKY" and SKY-MAP.ORG are two different sites. Your "inhabited" star's page with your personal information will be located on the site "INHABITED SKY". The SKY-MAP.ORG site is a noncommercial popular science resource and the changes, made by you on the "INHABITED SKY" will not affect the information on SKY-MAP.ORG. Nevertheless, on the page of your adopted star on SKY-MAP.ORG you will see the special symbol which will be a link to the page with your personal information on "INHABITED SKY". Thus, everyone who visits your inhabited star's page on SKY-MAP.ORG not only does immediately see that this star has been already adopted by someone, but also is able to instantly go to your personalized page on "INHABITED SKY".

You can "inhabit" a brighter or less bright star depending on the size of your aid. The following table gives you an idea of which star and on what conditions you can "inhabit":

Contribution amount Visual Magnitude *

$5 US or more 12 and higher

$10 US or more 9 and higher

$25 US or more 8 and higher

$50 US or more 7 and higher

$100 US or more 6 and higher

$250 US or more 5 and higher

$500 US or more Any available star *

^* Some of the bright stars are reserved

^* The Visual Magnitude Scale

Magnitude Object or Limit

−27 the Sun

−20 brightest meteors

−13 Full Moon

−4 Venus (brightest planet)

−1 Sirius (brightest star)

+6 naked-eye limit

+9 binoculars limit

+13 8" backyard telescope limit

+18 large telescope limit (visual)

+23 large telescope limit (photograpic)

+27 large telescope limit (CCD imaging)

+30 Hubble Space Telescope limit

Contribution amount	Visual Magnitude *
$5 US or more	12 and higher
$10 US or more	9 and higher
$25 US or more	8 and higher
$50 US or more	7 and higher
$100 US or more	6 and higher
$250 US or more	5 and higher
$500 US or more	Any available star *

Magnitude		Object or Limit
−27		the Sun
−20		brightest meteors
−13		Full Moon
−4		Venus (brightest planet)
−1		Sirius (brightest star)
+6		naked-eye limit
+9		binoculars limit
+13		8" backyard telescope limit
+18		large telescope limit (visual)
+23		large telescope limit (photograpic)
+27		large telescope limit (CCD imaging)
+30		Hubble Space Telescope limit