For Halley’s I was in a rural area that did not have much light pollution nor moonlight that night. Having heard a lot about Halley’s in school, I was happy to get to see it.
Hale Bopp was from a 747 going from SF to Singapore, about Midnight over the Aleutians. Was bigger but not a defined as Halley’s.
Probably not unusual for Acorns to not fall far from the tree with conservative kids.
Found Halley to be little more than a smudge viewed from Jones Beach on the south shore of Long Island.
Both Hyakutake in ‘96 and Hale-Bopp in ‘97 were easily visible to the naked eye from the roof of my Queens, NY apartment building.