Tentaikojo

Tentaikojo is asteroid #4645 and also known as 1990 SP4. Tentaikojo was discovered by the Japanese amateur astronomers Fujii Tetsuya (藤井 哲也) and Watanabe Kazurō (渡辺 和郎), who also named the asteroid, at the Kitami Observatory. Tentaikojo’s orbit is characterized by a semi-major axis of 2.67 Astronomical Units, an eccentricity of 0.13, a period of revolution of 1 596 days, and an inclination of 9.5 degrees.

Tentaikojo is named after Tentai-kōjō (天体工場), which means “Star Factory” and is an astronomical museum in the center of Sapporo, Hokkaidō, Japan. Only the Japanese part of the Wikipedia has got an article about the Tentai-kōjō (天体工場). It rather is a little theme-park focusing on stars. It was opened in 1993 (so after the asteroid had already been discovered) in a factory building owned by a beer company (Sapporo Beer) for the sake of improving the company’s image. The Tentai-kōjō (天体工場) seemingly was closed several times and is known by several different names, maybe due to rebranding. The Tentai-kōjō (天体工場) doesn’t strictly separate astronomy from astrology, but offers horoscopes too.

To me is quite surprising that something associated with astrology can have a better reputation than a brewery. Probably a cultural difference. However have a look at Brewer if you are looking for a representative of breweries. Numerous astronomers are represented in the sky too. So Tentaikojo isn’t needed for representing them. The stars are celestial objects themselves. Some regions in the sky, where new stars are born, are called “star factories” by astronomers, but these star factories are celestial objects too, so they also don’t need to be represented by Tentaikojo. Improving an image is everything, which is left for Tentaikojo. It could represent the advice to do so.

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