When I was a kid they were hyping Comet Kahoutek (1973), named after an astronomer who discovered it the previous year. Kahoutek was billed as the Comet of the Century, but other than American and Russian astronauts seeing it, the comet largely disintegrated on its return trip around the sun and turned into a fabulous flop. Kahoutek will return in about 75 thousand years and needn't bother.
I did see Halley's Comet in the Winter of 1986. Although my viewing location in rural Idaho was excellent─other than being pretty cold─this was reportedly the worst Halley's appearance in the past 2000 years. It was supposed to be a dirty snowball with a long incandescent tail. To me it looked just like a weird ice cream cone arcing in the night sky, with a pathetically short tail oriented mostly out of view.
Halley's earlier visit every 76 years was one of the most spectacular on record, and there was a bit of an apocalyptic panic in 1910 as the Earth was meant that time to pass through Halley's cyanogen-infused comet tail. But those fears were ill-informed as the density of the gas involved was meaningless.
Halley's 1910 Spring appearance forsaged the deaths of Mark Twain and then King Edward VII. The crowned heads of Europe, including his nephew, Kaiser Wilhelm II, met together at the English monarch's funeral for the last time in peace. This was probably the Apex of the Western world, which has been in relative freefall ever since.
When Halley's Comet returns for the next time in the Summer of 2061, it is expected to be resplendent viewing, being on the same side of the sun as the Earth. However, It is very unlikely that I will be there to see it, since if I were still alive, I would be about to turn 100 years old.
In was in Arizona for Hale-Bopp in 1997 and never saw anything but a big blop with the Phoenix city light pollution. I guess I should have driven far out into the dark desert, but I was not expecting much after my previous experiences with Kahoutek (below) or Halley's and never did that─so my low expectations were duly met.
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