The leash still by the door. The warm spot on the couch. And now: a star.
Some will say “it was just a dog.” They never waited at your door, never knew the sound of your car. Dogs give us years of ordinary days and then one unbearable one. A memorial doesn’t need to be grand — it can simply be somewhere real to go: a star you can look up and see.
You enter the time and place they said goodbye; we compute the zenith of that instant — the point directly overhead — and from the HYG catalog (107,838 real stars) return the real, still-unnamed star nearest that point. The same inputs always give the same star, and the coordinates speak astronomy’s common language — verify them in any sky-chart app.
A star record: traceable IDs (HIP / Gaia), J2000 coordinates, distance and spectral type · a 3D return to the sky of that final night · a downloadable certificate · and a memorial space that is private by default. One tier, $19.99 — no hidden upsells.
No, and we never say otherwise. There is no official star registry, and the IAU — the only body that officially names celestial objects — does not recognize commercial naming. What is real: the star itself, from the HYG catalog, with coordinates anyone can check in a sky-chart app. You are naming a memorial, not buying a scientific designation.
It depends on the star’s magnitude, which your certificate states. The star is chosen for being nearest the zenith at that moment, not for being brightest, so some are faint and need binoculars or a dark sky. Bright or faint, it sits at exactly those coordinates.
It is one of the few gifts that treats the loss as real, which is why owners tend to keep it. A pet’s death is often a grief the people around the owner do not treat as serious; this gift does. You need the pet’s name; the date and place help, and the time is optional — the free preview shows the sky before anything is paid for.
There is no single best one — it depends on how you want to remember them. Common directions: a paw print (worth taking early — for many owners it becomes the most treasured), an engraved portrait or fur keepsake (carried close), or a memorial star (their memory tied to the real star overhead at the moment they left — digital, available instantly). And one honest note: if the gift must go out today, physical options can no longer clear shipping; only the digital kind still arrives.
We can’t tell you where they are now.
But we can show you the star that was above them when they said goodbye.