I urge any of you haven't to look at Comet Hyakutake tonight or in the next few days. While this has nothing to do with "crypto," it is a sufficiently impressive sight that I urge you to check it out. If you have children, all the more reason to. It could spark an interest in science in some young child otherwise preoccupied with memorizing the words (all 7 of them) to "Gangsta's Paradise." Newspapers are carrying sky charts, and the Web has numerous charts (one I've been using is http://wkuweb1.wku.edu/Dept/Academic/Ogden/Phyast/k5_.htm). By around midnight last night it was overhead, near Arcturis and almost in a straight line with the Big Dipper's handle. (The comet is moving generally from Bootes toward Polaris, the North Star, so it will be visible most of the night, rotating around Polaris as the constellations rotate--as the Earth rotates, of course.) Don't rely on this description to try to find it--consult a star chart specifically intended for finding the comet. The moon is setting early, with the sun, so skies are optimum for seeing it. A dark location is of course best. City lights will make the tail hard or impossible to see, though the comet core itself is a bright object and should be visible anywhere even a handful of stars are visible (but you may not realize you're looking at a comet unless you can see the tail). Binoculars are great (I'm using 7 x 50 and 14 x 70), but the comet and its tail is a naked-eye subject in dark skies. I found the tail to extend several fist-widths at arm's length. The tail was visible with the naked eye. Pretty impressive. Tim says: "Check it out!" --Tim Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software! We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^756839 - 1 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."