A star gift at the last minute

Name a star for someone special on the Intergalactic Star Database.

It's tonight, or it's tomorrow, and you have only just remembered. Don't panic. Few presents can be chosen, personalised and in your hands in the same evening, and a star is among them. It also won't look as if you bought it at a petrol station.

How long have you got?

• Hours. Choose the print-at-home star at £8.99. As soon as your payment goes through, usually within seconds, your star is registered and its page opens with every document ready to print. We email you the link too.
• A few working days. The posted gift pack at £13.99 is usually sent within 24 hours by Royal Mail, with UK delivery included. We email you when it has been posted. Allow a few working days, and a little longer around bank holidays.
• Over a weekend. Orders placed on a Friday evening or at the weekend go out on the next working day, so print at home is the safer choice if the present is needed by Monday.
• Christmas. Order by 18 December for UK delivery before Christmas. After that, a print-at-home star is ready the moment you order, right up to Christmas Day.
• Ordering on Amazon. The gift pack is on Amazon too, and Amazon shows you the expected delivery date before you pay.

Our page on delivery and last-minute orders goes through what happens between order and post. The post can't be hurried, so if the date really can't move, print it at home.

From nothing to a finished present, in order

Allow about half an hour. Most of that will be spent deciding on the name.

• Choose the name. A first name, a couple, a date or a short phrase, up to 60 characters. If you are stuck, look through what to call your star. Then try it on the certificate preview, because we print what you type.
• Pay. The payment page is run by Stripe. At checkout you ask us to register your star straight away, and our terms of sale set out what that means for cancelling. If you spot a slip in the name afterwards, a print-at-home star can be corrected free of charge.
• Keep the number. Your star's page shows its Database Number, ISD followed by seven digits. Note it down, because it is how you find your star again.
• Print. There are four documents: a Certificate of Registry, a Star Area Co-ordinates Sheet, a star chart and a welcome letter. Ordinary A4 paper works. If you have any card in the house, use it for the certificate, which can be printed at A4 or A5, in colour or black and white.
• Present it. See below.

Making it look as if you planned it

A print-at-home star can look like a thoughtful present or like something you printed five minutes ago. The difference is usually small.

• A frame. Any frame in the house can be borrowed for the occasion. An A5 certificate fits many small photo frames, and it is the single most effective thing you can do.
• A roll and a ribbon. Roll the certificate, tie it, and it looks like a scroll. Put the other sheets in an envelope alongside it.
• A card. Fold the welcome letter into a birthday card with one handwritten line about why you picked that name.
• The star chart. Print it at A3 if you can get to a printer that manages it, and use it as wrapping paper for something else.
• A plan. Write "Clear night, binoculars, you and me" on a piece of card. An outing costs nothing and adds a good deal.
• Good paper. Print one test sheet on plain paper first, so you find out about a low ink cartridge before you have used your only sheet of card.

No printer at all? From the star's page you can send a gift link. It opens on their phone as a message from the Database and then shows them the star, and the documents can be printed later, as often as you like. For anyone you can't see in person, that may be the better present anyway.

What you can truthfully tell them

Being last-minute doesn't make it less real. Every star we register is a real star, and from November 2026 each new star comes from the Hipparcos catalogue, with its catalogue number, position and constellation on the certificate. It is entered in the Intergalactic Star Database with its own Database Number, and no star is given to two people in our registry.

The star's page shows whether it is up tonight and which way to face, but do look before you promise anything. Most of our stars are just beyond what the eye can see on its own and need binoculars, and each has its own best months. Here is what to expect. The name is recorded in our registry; official star names are decided by the International Astronomical Union, which doesn't recognise names from any commercial registry.

The gift works for almost anyone: a birthday, a wedding or anniversary, Christmas, or a friend you have just heard some news about.

Questions about ordering at the last minute