An Astronomy Post? Who'da thunkit!

OK, the name on the title is 'The former Telescope Mercenary, but that doesn't mean I can get off completely without mentioning a few things here and there about astronomy.

I got an email a few months ago from a friend who was asking me "is this true?!" The email was about the upcoming Mars opposition. I read the email and scratched my head.. for it was the same exact claims made about the opposition of Mars in 2003. Problem was, the claims made in the email in 2003 were true, the claims made in the one making the rounds now were...not, even though they were the same thing.

Anyway, in 2003 Mars made its closest opposition in 50,000 years or so. It was very low in the sky, but some great views were to be had. I was working for a certain telescope company at the time and to popularity of this event caught us off guard. We had been actively trying to reduce our inventory when all of a sudden we were completely out of any telescope that could be used for planetary viewing. Basically all that was left was a bunch of short-tube telescopes (not any good for planetary viewing). Ah, memories, one of the last things I was asked to do before they laid me off was to try and find and all events in 2004 that might have a similar effect.

These days, I'm really not going to be able to do much about Mars. My only telescope is an Astroscan, not the best telescope for viewing planets (which need high magnification) and my convenient viewing location is the roof of my apartment. Which is made worse by the wood deck that does not make for a stable viewing platform. I used to have a larger telescope (A SkyQuest 8), but I sold that in anticipation of buying an improved version with a massive employee discount. Never happened. I was laid off before they got in stock.

I'm rambling. I have had a headache all day and no aspirin seems to help much. I think I really need sleep.