Steve wrote: >>But NO!<< Ah, visions of John Belushi dance across my synapses. Hopefully the = human race will not have "The Luck of the Irish." We can only hope that the first real meteoriod alert either turns out to = be wrong or the impact minor in scale because there is no chance that = humanity wil be prepared for such an event. My impression is that many = Earth-crossers essentially pop out of the darkness at the last moment so without a = suitable technological response "on the pad" we are merely a moving target in "sitting duck" mode. Hopefully in the next few years CCD technology will be cheap enough that averagely-heeled amatuer astronomers would be able to form a search = network capable of pulling any potential deep impactors out of the murk. A short = f/l 20" scope coupled with a next-next gen CCD should be able to go quite = deep. I wonder what the limiting mag would need to be . . . Matt -- See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and please send personal replies to the author, not the list.