I observed Hale Bopp in the northwest sky from QLD. It had a high surface brightness but wasn’t very big. Hyakutake was more impressive due to its tail being 10 times longer and both pale into insignificance compared to comet McNaught 2006P1, the only Great Comet of the past 45 years.
https://joe-cali.com/eclipses/PAST/m.../mcnaught.html
The comet and inner tail were both easily observed in early bright twilight and from the centre of Canberra. The western edge of the city was only 10 minutes drive from my home so I usually headed just outside the city edge.
As the end of twilight approached the beautiful striated tail stretched up to 40 deg across the evening sky. I recall photographing the comet in bright twilight just using my then film camera auto exposure mode. Twilight exposures were of the order of 1/4 s 500mm f5.6 with Ektachrome E200.
Comet Halley was impressive but only pre perihelion around March 20 when it sported a beautiful scimitar tail in the predawn sky. The tail was similar in length to Hale Bopp but fainter. I agree that it wasn’t impressive during April post perihelion but that was predicted in Stephen Edberg’s NASA book on Halley’s Comet.
Comet Leonard in December 2021 is another favourite. Faint to the naked eye it was a very rewarding subjugation with optical aid. Living under Bortle 2 skies outside Young I was able to observe it in clear cloudless moonless skies 15 out of 21 nights of the apparition and partly cloudy skies two other nights. Although fainter, the comet dramatically changed appearance and tail structure almost every night. It was as if I was observing a different comet every night. I had a relay of friends from Canberra coming out to escape the light pollution and near complete cloud cover that hangs around the ranges and coastal strip.
The tail could be traced for about 18 degrees in binoculars and tail structures and disconnects could be studied visually in my 6” and 18” telescopes with both scopes delivering rewarding views.
https://joe-cali.com/astronomy/astro...-2/index9.html
Joe