What Happens to Your Memorial Page If We Ever Close
An honest account of “forever”: our commitment (no shutdown is planned — it carries on), what does not depend on us at all, and the three safeguards worth doing today.
“Forever” is marketing language at most memorial services. Our answer has two layers. First, a commitment: this is a memorial site — no shutdown is planned, and none is intended; the way we run it is for it to carry on. Memorial pages have no expiry date, no subscription, no renewal. Second, insurance: even if the unexpected happens, most of what you buy does not depend on us — the star is in a public catalog, its identifier points to the same star in any sky app, and the certificate PDF is your own file the moment you download it. Both layers, written plainly — that is an honest answer to “forever.”
First, the honest headline: “forever” gets a two-layer answer
Ask any memorial service “will this last forever?” and you will usually get a marketing word back. We won’t give you a word — we’ll give you two layers: a commitment (no shutdown is planned — it carries on) and insurance (the parts that stay yours with or without us). This page lays out both.
The commitment is the part we can keep; the insurance is the part that needs nobody to keep anything. No service can turn “forever” into a law of physics — servers fail and domains expire, the shared situation of every online service. So we put our words where they can be honored: in our intent and succession, and in the files you hold in your hand. That is also the frame to bring to any memorial service: not “are you forever?” but “what exactly do you promise, and what do I take with me?”
What does not depend on us at all
- The star itself
- It comes from the HYG catalog (merged from Hipparcos, Gliese, Yale and other public survey data), and its identifier (HIP / Gaia) is astronomy’s common language. If astarnamed.com vanished tomorrow, “HIP 114249” would still point to the same real star in any catalog and any sky app.
- The zenith computation
- The algorithm is standard astronomy and the data is a public catalog: the same moment and place always yield the same star. Anyone can independently re-derive it without our servers — that is what “same inputs, same star” really means.
- The certificate PDF
- Once downloaded, the certificate is your file: offline, with no access expiry and no login required — and no one can take it back ten years from now.
- The star charts
- The phone wallpaper, desktop wallpaper and 300 DPI print-ready chart (A4/A3) are all downloadable; printed and framed, paper outlives any server.
What does need us running
- The memorial page & the 3D sky
- The page that returns you to the sky of that night, the candles and flowers, your private notes — they live on our servers and are reachable only while the service runs.
- No subscription, no expiry
- A memorial star is a one-time purchase: no auto-renewal, no “the page lapsed because a payment failed.” The only deadline anywhere is the 7-day hold on an unpaid order’s star slot — a paid memorial page has no expiry date.
- Our commitment: it is run to carry on
- This is a memorial site — no shutdown is planned, no exit timeline, and none intended; the way it is run is for it to carry on, into hands that will keep it standing. That is our promise to you, and to every name written on a star here.
Three safeguards you can do today
- Save the certificate in two places
- One copy locally, one in cloud storage or emailed to yourself — two places are almost impossible to lose at once.
- Print one 300 DPI chart
- Worth framing; what hangs on a wall needs no account to view.
- Write down the star record
- The HIP / Gaia identifier plus J2000 coordinates — one line, written anywhere. With it, the star is findable forever.
About your data
- Retention
- Order and payment records are kept as tax and legal requirements demand (typically at least 5 years); other personal data is kept while the service relationship exists.
- Your rights
- You can ask to access, correct or delete your personal data at any time, and request account deletion — just email support@astarnamed.com.
- Your private notes
- Notes in your memorial space are visible only to you by default; what you write there belongs to you.
The memorial never lived on the servers anyway
This whole page is about backups, exports and servers — but the memorial never really lived in a data center. It lives in the moment you look up, in the moment you say the name. The star was there for billions of years before you two met, and it will be there long after — longer than any website. Anyone selling memorials should admit that before their customers do: the memorial belongs to you, not to us. If you are reading this in the middle of a loss, take care of yourself first — and if you or someone you love is in acute grief, do not hesitate to reach out for professional support.
FAQ
Does a memorial page expire?
A delivered memorial page has no expiry date, no subscription, no renewal. The only deadline is on unpaid orders: a star slot is held for 7 days and released automatically if payment is not completed — to keep it, simply finish the payment in time.
Will you ever shut this site down?
No shutdown is planned, and none is intended — this is a memorial site, and the way we run it is for it to carry on. Memorial pages have no expiry date, no subscription, no renewal. We still tell you to download your certificate and the 300 DPI chart — not because we are imagining an ending, but because keeping your own copy in your own hands is how this site does things, and for the worst case you are covered either way.
Can I find the star somewhere other than your site?
Yes. With the HIP / Gaia identifier or the J2000 coordinates from the star record, any sky app — Stellarium, SkySafari — will locate the same real star, with no involvement from us. That is also the most concrete proof that the star is real.