This makes relatively darker eastern skies over the mountains, than over the city of Vancouver to the south. I used the Hale-Bopp Finder V1.0 to locate the comet and to print an 11 degree field which we have been plotting the path of the comet on. Even with the city lights Hale-Bopp is visible to the naked eye although it looks like a fuzzy star. With 7x35 binoculars the tail is visible. It is wide, wispy, and elusive.
Averted vision is very exciting as the tail brightens considerably.