"Look to the skies!"

[tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)]

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."