Cumbrian Sky

The "astrology vs astronomy" battle is as eternal and endless as the battles between good and evil, dark and light, Dr Who and the Daleks... but I was stunned and more than a little shocked to find the two clashing so noisily in a discount bookshop here in Kendal recently, when I saw a small (and pretty useless, it has to be said) telescope on sale in there. This is what is printed on the box...

That's a bit hard to see, I know, so take a look at the proper pic here...

No, you're not seeing things, that really is a telescope that you can use to "explore the wonders of astrology".

AAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

And from the "University of Oxford", too! Now, I'm not even sure there IS a "University of Oxford"... I suspect that could be a sneaky play on words by the makers, designed to make people think the scope is recommended by Oxford University. I'll have to do a little digging.

Unbelievable, eh?

Update: I just Googled "University of Oxford" and that is, apparently, the official name for 'Oxford University'. So, being charitable, I'm tempted to believe it's just a printing error... but even so it's something the printers and the University people should have spotted. I'm going to email them a link to this post and see what they have to say.

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