NamedLight Blog

You don't need a telescope to explore the night sky — just a smartphone and the right app. Here are the best free stargazing apps available in 2026, and what each one does best.

There are dozens of star naming services available — and they are not all the same. Here's an honest look at what separates a registry backed by real data from one that isn't, and what questions to ask before you buy.

Every star in the HYG Database has a spectral class — a letter and number code like G2, K5, or M3. It's one of the most information-dense pieces of data in astronomy, and it tells you more about a star than almost anything else.

The world is full of baby gifts — most of them forgotten within a year. These ideas stand apart because they're personal, lasting, or meaningful in a way that a onesie simply isn't.

The circular sky map on your NamedLight registry page isn't a stock image or an illustration — it's a real photograph of the sky, centered precisely on your star's coordinates. Here's how it's made.

Small but unmistakable in the summer sky, Lyra contains one of the brightest stars visible from Earth, one of astronomy's most iconic dying stars, and a myth about love, loss, and the limits of what even the greatest gifts can overcome.

Every anniversary year has a traditional gift theme — but the most memorable gifts go beyond the list. Here's a year-by-year guide to anniversary gifts that actually carry weight.

Your NamedLight registry page lists your star's distance in light years. But what does that number actually mean? Here's a plain-language guide to one of astronomy's most important concepts.

Your NamedLight registry page includes everything you need to find your star — right ascension, declination, constellation, and magnitude. Here's how to actually use that data to locate it in the sky.

Flowers arrive and fade. Cards get put away. This guide looks at lasting ways to honor someone who has passed — the kinds of tributes that carry weight over time, and why some forms of remembrance endure while others don't.