This disappointed people who were told that it would be 5 times brighter than the moon and that its tail would stretch across 1/6 of the sky.  
Skylab 4 made detailed observations of it, but from Earth it was a faint smudge near Venus and Jupiter, apparently because it was enveloped in a Hydrogen cloud.  This disappointed people who were told that it would be 5 times brighter than the moon and that its tail would stretch across 1/6 of the sky.  FTP what comet, named for its Czech discoverer, snuck past us in late 1973 and early 1974.
Skylab 4 made detailed observations of it, but from Earth it was a faint smudge near Venus and Jupiter, apparently because it was enveloped in a Hydrogen cloud.  
Kohoutek