Astronomy Research at Windowpane Observatory
 Windowpane Observatory is the name of the observatory in Southern Arizona that names galaxies at the website wpo.net. The name a galaxy program was a fundraiser for a new mirror for the telescope. WPO stands for windowpane observatory that is a popular astronomy site for telescope reviews, astronomy news, ask-the-astronomer, extraterrestrial explorations, astro-tales about famous astronomers, and the teaching and understanding of basic astronomical concepts.
The primary research objective of WPO is to discover and report on short-term cosmic phenomena like comets, exploding stars, and asteroids that might hit the Earth. WPO was built in 1988 specifically for that purpose. It's particular Ash Dome observatory construction was quite unique at the time. In 1995 WPO decided to raise money by allowing astronomy enthusiasts to adopt a galaxy in much the same way star registries name stars. With the campaign "Why name a star when you can Name a Galaxy filled with billions and billions of stars?" became a world-wide sensation when the Associated Press picked up the story as a unique Valentine gift. The slogan "Give the gift that lasts longer than forever" is play on the phrase "Give the Gift that lasts forever" popularized by the De Beers diamond company. In the catch phrase "Give the gift that lasts longer than forever" the "longer than forever" refers to the estimated lifetime of galaxies which is around 5 - 10 billion years, which compared to an ordinary human life would seem like longer than forever.
For the week before Valentine's Day 1996, hundreds of galaxies were adopted, named, and catalogued as galactic gifts became a national sensation. Astronomers at the observatory were manning banks of phones 24/7. The Internet was only 4 years old in early 1996 and newspapers were writing stories about Valentine galaxies and the observatory without ever talking to WPO staff. This is because they were getting their information from WPO web pages on the Internet. This was still a new approach and the marrying of the galaxy naming original concept and its promotion on the Internet had an immediate and huge impact. WPO was talked about in 44 newspapers and on television and radio. Remember this was all before Google, before Yahoo, before Amazon or E-Bay or even Internet Explorer. Netscape was the premier browser..
The following year original members of the cast of Star Trek were personally presented with galaxies named after them. Deforest Kelley, who played "Bones" the ship's doctor accepted the certificates on behalf of the entire Star Trek cast in front of 5,000 people at a Star Trek convention in Phoenix, AZ. The Star Trek television opening was also featured on a CNN news story about the galaxy naming observatory. In 1998 senior executives at NBC named a galaxy after Bob Hope, for the man "who has everything". Hope wrote a personal note from his home in Palm Springs, CA thanking WPO for the honor.
Despite all the star-naming scams and imitators, WPO remains the only true scientific astronomical facility that raises money for basic research by naming unnamed galaxies and in return for their donation allowing donors to visit the observatory to see the galaxy they named and the rest of the visible universe. Additionally galaxy namers are permitted free and unrestricted access to astronomers at windowpane to answer any astronomical question either by E-mail or telephone. This is a lifetime service that provides a perpetual science education in keeping with the concept of "longer than forever". While other companies merely send paperwork or post documents on the web, 15 years later you can still call an astronomer directly and ask about the name a galaxy program and make your plans to visit the observatory and learn about astronomy.
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