One of the character flaws of the later day H was the loss of interest in comets. Early H astronomers in contrast had considerable interest in comets. nArada had a weird theory that all comets were the same one reappearing again & again. Not sure if this was some vague knowledge of Halley’s comet or just a strange theory. This comet does seem to have a greenish hue; hence, the old H would have called it an agni-putra-ketu.
The H omina et portenta believed that some comets presaged great good & others bad. One of this type was said to bring fear & cause death of the lord of the shUrasena-s.
It does seem that the old H clearly understood comets as celestial & reflecting light unlike the Aristotelian physics were they were described as atmospheric objects until Geminiano Montanari showed otherwise.