Wow, what great cameras they had back then..J/K ;)
I do wonder, however, could a comet produce a tail that looks that long from Earth?
I have seen only Haley’s and Kohoutek.
As I remember, Haley was a disappointment on the most recent pass, and not as good as the previous pass that I understand, frightened most everyone, or Kohoutek, as I saw it.
Yes, just depends on the size and composition of the comet and proximity to Earth. The 1910 pass of Halley’s was one of its closest, and it’s a big comet. Retrocalculation suggested that Halley’s passed close enough to Earth (1st c AD, if memory serves) to more or less bounce through the atmosphere and/or experience a slingshot effect.