The orientation dependence of the fine structure of the Al L1 and L2,3 electron energy loss (EELS) edges in (α-Al2O3 has been investigated by measurements with a dedicated scanning transmission electron microscope (VG HB501 STEM, 100 keV acceleration voltage). α-Al2O3 is an anisotropic solid with a complicated alternating stacking sequence of fee Al and hcp O planes along the [0001] direction [1]. This distingiushes the [0001] direction crystallographically, as the highest-order three-fold rotation axes (C3) of the trigonal crystal structure are parallel to [0001], whereas all other symmetry elements are of lower order. Group theory predicts, that more stringent symmetry selection rules apply when electronic transitions are excited by irradiation parallel to the low-index [0001] zone axis than by irradiation along any other arbitrary direction.Yet, even for a low-energy EELS edge (θE = 0.4 mrad) both scattering parallel and perpendicular to the incident beam direction are likely.