Question: how would you know if somebody has already found the star you have claimed to find?

Evan Keane answered on 15 Jun 2011:

Good question! When you find a star you write a scientific paper, basically a report about it, and then this gets published (if it is good enough!) in a scientific journal, which is essentially a book (and are all online). If it is not in any paper already (you have to check these!) I know that it is a new one!

Sometimes I did find a few things and thought they were new, and then found out that somebody already found them! It was disappointing. 🙁 But I knew my method must have been right because I found something real, and I persisted and found many never-before seen ones, and that was great! 😀