Discovery of Comet Donati

Donati's Comet was discovered by the Italian astronomer Giovanni Battista Donati at the observatory in Florence, and became one of the most spectacular comets of the nineteenth century. It brightened through the late summer and autumn of 1858, developing a long curved tail with a sharp dust tail and a straighter gas tail, and was seen with the naked eye by huge numbers of people. It was the first comet to be photographed, though the early photographic plates showed little. In early October it passed close to the bright star Arcturus, a sight widely described by observers. Its orbit has a period of about two thousand years, so it will not return for a very long time.

Open on the timeline