Amateur astronomers shouldn't drive at night, especially when a bright comet is in the vicinity. I lost count of the number of times I almost drove the car off the road on my way out to Yanna Research Station. I couldn't help it. Comet Hyakutake was sitting right there in Bootes and I had a perfect view through the driver's side window. It was amazing.

The sketch at left captures the appearance of Hyakutake in my binoculars. The 10X50 Swift Kestrel has a 7.1 degree field of view. The comet extends across two complete fields, 14 degrees. The nucleus appears elongated along the axis of the tail and is surrounded by an oval coma similar in size to the full Moon. Arcturus is the bright star near the end of the tail. Izar (Epsilon Boo) is the star bright star above and to the left of the comet head. There are two shorter tails extending northwest and southwest from the coma. The comet nucleus is close to rivaling Vega in brightness. This comet is simply spectacular.