During the remainder of April and in May the comet was closely observed by many astronomers, including Winnecke in Straßburg, Tempel in Arcetri, Rayet in Paris, Schulhof in Vienna, Rümker in Hamburg, Schmidt in Athens, Bruhns in Leipzig, Christie in Greenwich and Dreyer in Copenhagen.

At its brightest, it probably exceeded the first magnitude and displayed a series of envelopes within its coma that astronomers compared with Donati's Comet 16 years earlier.

On July 27[8] the comet became visible in the southern hemisphere, with observations made in South Africa and by Robert L. J. Ellery[9] in Australia.

According to a newspaper report from pre-dawn observations by H. C. Russell on July 29, "The nucleus was as bright as a first magnitude star, and the head about half the diameter of the moon.

Extended undulations, rapid vibrations, ran along it in succession from the horizon to its extremity, giving it the appearance of a fine gauze wavering in a strong breeze.

"[13] Using 638 observations of Comet Coggia made over a period of 185 days, Josef von Hepperger in 1882 calculated an elliptical orbit inclined about 66° to the ecliptic.

[16] The public scare regarding the comet was satirized by Mark Twain in his short story "A Curious Pleasure Excursion.