Class names star after pet guinea pig
By SCOTT POWELL Ledger Staff Writer spowell@gaffneyledger.com

Village School of Gaffney third graders have named a star after their pet guinea pig Buttercup. The star's name is now on file at the International Star Registry in Switzerland.

Buttercup is now a star in the sky.

Village School of Gaffney third graders successfully got a star named after Buttercup, a guinea pig that was their classroom pet. The starnaming project highlighted an astronomy study of planets and stars.

The class received an official certificate and coordinates for their star on Jan. 27 from the International Star Registry. The star is in the Ursa Major constellation.

The Buttercup star is listed in The Registry vault in Switzerland and registered with the U.S. Copyright Office.

Village School of Gaffney third grade teacher Gigi Hamrick discovered the star registry while doing research for an astronomy lesson on planets and stars.

"There are millions of stars that can be named. Our class wanted to name the star after Buttercup, a guinea pig they kept as a pet for several months," Hamrick said. "We had to give Buttercup away because it had become too much work to keep the pet. We felt the best thing we could do was name a star in her honor."

It costs a minimum of $54 to name a star.

Hamrick's class could have paid extra money to have a star named in a specific constellation. Instead, students just let the registry decide the location of their star.

Several students in the class already plan on using telescopes at home to find Buttercup in the night sky.

Astronomers can find the star at the following coordinates: Ursa Major RA 11 h 20 m 31 S D57 40.