Xena: Warrior Princess

Lucy Lawless and Renee O'Connor | Stars For Lucy And Renee

In December of 1996 someone posted a message to the Chakram mailing list mentioning that it was possible to purchase stars for people and have the stars named for those people. Enough people on the list thought that purchasing stars for Lucy and Renee was a neat idea that we banded together, pooled our money, and bought the stars.

The chief architect of the "Stars for Stars" project was Laurie Blankenship, who collected the money, arranged for the purchase, and made sure that Lucy and Renee received the framed, 12 x 16 inch parchment naming their stars, a sky chart (showing where their stars are), an astronomy book, and a constellation chart (also showing where their stars are).

The company which records these purchases and names is The International Star Registry. Their catalogue of stars is derived from the standard astronomical catalogue but their names, unfortunately, are not used by astronomers.

The two stars are named "Lucy Lawless" and "Renee O'Connor", and the names have been registered with the US Copyright Office. The information is also stored in a vault in Switzerland.

Lucy's parchment contains the following text:

Know ye herewith that the International Star Registry doth hereby redesignate star number Cassiopeia RA 1h 33m 1sd 62' 24' to the name LUCY LAWLESS . Know ye further that this star will henceforth be known by this name. This name is permanently filed in The Registry's vault in Switzerland and recorded in a book which will be registered in the copyright office of the United States of America.   To witness whereof we hereunto set our hands and affix the seal of the International Star Registry this 25th day of December 1996. Signature of the Secretary and the Registrar. Cassiopeia Constellation

Renee's parchment contains the following text:

Know ye herewith that the International Star Registry doth hereby redesignate star number Orion RA 6h 3m 53sd 13' 9' to the name RENEE O'CONNOR . Know ye further that this star will henceforth be known by this name. This name is permanently filed in The Registry's vault in Switzerland and recorded in a book which will be registered in the copyright office of the United States of America.   To witness whereof we hereunto set our hands and affix the seal of the International Star Registry this 25th day of December 1996. Signature of the Secretary and the Registrar. The Orion Constellation

The LUCY LAWLESS star has a magnitude of 11.4 and the RENEE O'CONNOR star has a magnitude of 11.3. Unfortunately, you need a very strong telescope to see these stars.

Laurie included a card in the package sent to Lucy and Renee which read: "From the Chakram mailing list on behalf of all Xenites."

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