the terms

in plain language — because honest terms don’t need small print.

the plain version

You’re buying a keepsake: a real, catalogued star bound to a name and a dedication in our registry, with its own page and link. You are not buying the star itself, an official star name, or anything the IAU or any astronomer would recognize — no one can sell you those, so these terms won’t pretend otherwise.

your star

• Each catalogue star can be claimed once in our registry. Once it’s yours, we never resell it or reassign it.
• Your star’s page and link stay up. Keeping the sky lit is the whole point of this project, and we intend to keep it for as long as we exist. If the project ever had to wind down, we would say so plainly and give you your star’s full record first.
• Signing in with your phone lets you manage your stars and read the messages people leave on them. Losing the link doesn’t lose the star — its page has a door back in.

money

• Payments are handled by PayPal. We never store your card number.
• If two people reach for the same star in the same breath, one claim has to lose — the losing payment is refunded automatically and in full, and we say so on the spot.
• If anything else goes wrong with a payment, tell us and we’ll make it right: hello@starsintheskies.com. It’s $3 — there is no fine print about it.

words

• Names, dedications and messages are moderated for cruelty. Keep them kind; we remove hateful content, and we don’t argue about it.
• A dedication is public on the star’s page by default, and private when you choose “keep these words on the star only” — the page, the link preview and search all honor that choice.
• Anonymous words left beside a star are read by a person before they appear. One per star, ever.

the boring but honest parts

The service is provided as it is — a small, carefully kept thing, not an enterprise contract. Our liability to you is limited to what you actually paid us. If we change these terms we’ll change the date at the bottom of this page, and we won’t change what you already bought.

last updated July 2026