have you actually seen a comet passing by

I have watched comets passing by... not a fraction of a second but too long... I think if I had time I can watch it for two hours (dawn). And not only for one day but a couple of days

That's a comet? I think comets stay around a lot longer than that! It sounds like you've witnessed what's commonly referred to as a shooting star. I have actually seen a couple of comets in my time. Halley's comet I have tracked for many months. It was very clear in our skies down here the whole time. I recorded it & stored everything in the time capsule project we had going while I was in primary school - year 5, if I remember correctly! Fascinating stuff. We didn't have telescopes on the farm, but it looked magnificent through the binoculars. Every so often, one could get an entirely different view of it as it moved through the solar system. I think this comet passed so very close to the earth in 1910 that people truly believed the world would end.

Comets are usually visible for many days both as they approach the sun and also after they have passed it. I have seen two or three in my lifetime. What you may be thinking of is meteors or 'shooting stars'. These usually last for only a second or less as they burn up in the atmosphere. Most of them are no bigger than a grain of sand so all you see is a streak of light in the sky. There are times of the year when there are very frequent meteor showers and if you are in a dark place with a clear sky you can see twenty or so in a minute. Some showers are very spectacular. You can actually see a shooting star or two most nights. You just need to be looking in the right place at the time.

I was quite young when Halley's comet passed and I remember more talking about it then actually seeing it. It is one of those mystical comets as it is one that comes around quite often. The fact that so few comets come passed and that even fewer are visible, seeing one is quite something.