2007/07/11 7h UTC Under an urban-suburban transition sky with heavy 2 magnitude extinction due to a pandemic of western wildfires, I located C/2007VZ13 in Drac about 3 1/2 degrees east of eta Drac. This is a faint comet that could not be seen in a 50mm finder under these skies but that was just visible with averted vision in 10x50 binoculars. Unlike online images in a 10 inch Newt-EQ, the visual coma appeared oval, not circular - probably a function of the high smoke extinction. In the western smoke filled sky, a broadband LPR filter improved the image while an OIII filter did not. A major-axis drift size estimate at 62 deg dec was about 7.1 arcmins (34 secs) - consistent with the most recent ICQ reports. Due to heavy extinction and accurate brightness estimate was not possible. Using the In-Out method on nearby stars HD143186 (v9.5) and TYC4182-01593-1 (Tycho-v 10.5), a rough estimated magnitude was about v9.5. This is consistent with the MPO center ephemeris brightness estimate and inconsistent with the most recent ICQ report (7/7 - v7.9). This is a small fast-moving high-inclination comet that is on its inbound leg. It's a small but pleasing comet. By the 20th it will be in Bootes about 8 degs north of M3 and 10 degs west of rho Boo. By that time, a 1st Qtr Moon will be washing out the comet's view. Tonight (7-11), it will be about 1 deg north east of iot Dra. - Kurt _______________________________________________ Sent via CSolutions - http://www.csolutions.net