Can You Count 400 Billion Stars?

[Shem]

Cooooool

[J sub D]

Don't we have computers to that sort of tedious work? :-)

[Stevo Darkly]

I only counted 399,999,999,9999 stars.

Gyp.

(That really is rather cool.)

(Also, a few months ago a paper came out that raised the estimate of stars in the Milky Way galaxy to possibly as many as a trillion.)

[D.A. Ridgely]

For a limited time only (as opposed to, say, eternity), I'm able to offer you the opportunity to have one of these stars registered in your very own name. That's right, for just 1995 easy monthly payments of $19.95, you and your family can enjoy the cosmic satisfaction that comes with star naming rights in perpetuity. Here at the Ridgely AstroNominal Institute, your star will be registered and astronomers throughout the world will thereafter refer to your star by your name and/or by its International Astronomical Union designation, if any, as appropriate. Imagine the pride you'll feel taking your son or daughter out on a starlit night and pointing out the approximate location of Shem Prime or Darkly IV. But hurry, when the stars are all named this offer will be withdrawn and you'll have missed a truly once in a lifetime opportunity to claim your piece of the universe and, at the same time, help the Ridgely AstroNominal Institute Scion Scholarship and Founder Retirement Endowment. Call now. Operators are standing by.

[Kolohe]

he he, "endowment"

[Aresen]

DAR:

That has been done by every planetarium in the world already.

However, I would be very interested in purchasing a modest 30 km nickel-iron asteroid with a high platinum-group content.

[Stevo Darkly]

How much for Uranus?

[Aresen]

How much for Uranus?

You touch her Mons Venerus and she'll smack you in the Utopia Planitia.

[J sub D]

For a limited time only (as opposed to, say, eternity), I'm able to offer you the opportunity to have one of these stars registered in your very own name. That's right, for just 1995 easy monthly payments of $19.95, you and your family can enjoy the cosmic satisfaction that comes with star naming rights in perpetuity. Here at the Ridgely AstroNominal Institute, your star will be registered and astronomers throughout the world will thereafter refer to your star by your name and/or by its International Astronomical Union designation, if any, as appropriate. Imagine the pride you'll feel taking your son or daughter out on a starlit night and pointing out the approximate location of Shem Prime or Darkly IV. But hurry, when the stars are all named this offer will be withdrawn and you'll have missed a truly once in a lifetime opportunity to claim your piece of the universe and, at the same time, help the Ridgely AstroNominal Institute Scion Scholarship and Founder Retirement Endowment. Call now. Operators are standing by.

Screw that. I've already got a galaxy named after me. And a grain of sand on Bondi beach. I need only a species of bacteria for the triple crown.

[Timothy]

DAR:

That has been done by every planetarium in the world already.

However, I would be very interested in purchasing a modest 30 km nickel-iron asteroid with a high platinum-group content.

Planning on going into the organo-metallic catalysis business?