When I mentioned my Feb 8th observation of Hale-Bopp as 1st magnitude, this was based on a direct comparison of Deneb which it equaled. As GeoZay recently mentioned Deneb as 1.3, that was the more exact brightness that morning from the WSP in Florida. As mentioned before, we saw a 4 degree tail in 12x63 binoculars, 2 degrees naked-eye. It was nice seeing a nice naked-eye tail while meteor observing! GWG