Get Your Facts Right

As a writer, I like to get my facts straight. I don’t always manage it, but at least I try. So it annoys the hell out of me when I see others quoting events and juggling facts to make them fit their absurd theories.

The latest (and it’s been doing the rounds for a few months now) is this rare alignment of planets over the Pyramids on December 3rd.

On the same site as I found this, it recommended we all watch a rare meteor shower on October 20th/21st. This meteor shower is known as the Orionids, and it’s so rare it only happens every year. As rare goes, it’s not quite in the same league as rocking horse shit.

Are these the same people who were amazed at the startling coincidence of a New Moon and an eclipse happening at the same time? I can’t remember, but I do remember what I said when I read it. THEY ONLY HAPPEN AT NEW MOON, YOU IDIOTS. A total eclipse of the Sun can’t happen at any other time.

Back to this rare planetary conjunction. They’re not actually as rare as these people would have you imagine. They happen all the time. How rare they are appearing over the Pyramids, I can’t say, but I do know this, because I checked up. At the latitude of the Pyramids, anyone looking at the alignment will see it nearly vertical, so unless someone has uprooted the pyramids and stacked them up on their sides, they’re highly unlikely to line up over them.

Course, I could be wrong. Despite the fact that most astronomers (as opposed to fantasists) say that I’m right, I could be putting my foot in my mouth again.

After all we had a curious alignment of heavenly bodies earlier this year, didn’t we?  Back in march April-ish there was a triumvirate in the skies. Venus hovered over Higginshaw gasworks, Jupiter sat bang over the top of the Arco Car Wash and at that same moment, the Moon shone above bus stop on Manchester Street.

The world, however, did not come to an end. It didn’t even change. But the drain on the washing machine got clogged up.

May I should have paid more attention to the signs.