Kazimieras Cernis at the Institute of Theoretical Physics and Astronomy at Vilnius, Lithuania, located it the same night and before the announcement of Pojmański's discovery, in ultraviolet images taken a few days earlier by the SWAN instrument aboard the SOHO satellite.

The comet moved on a northward path across the night sky, and reached maximum brightness around the beginning of March.

It could be found in the dawn sky within the constellation Capricornus, close to the horizon in the northern hemisphere, during late February, but viewing circumstances became better for the northern hemisphere as the comet departed southern skies and continued north.

It had previously been estimated to reach a maximum brightness of around 6.5 magnitude, but became considerably brighter.

During the comet's appearance, it sported a tail of three to seven degrees (six to fourteen times the apparent lunar diameter) and a coma of up to about 10 arcseconds.