It was discovered by Thomas Henry Espinell Compton Espin at Wolsingham Observatory on 30 Dec 1910, at which time it was an 8th magnitude object.

[6] It reached a peak brightness of magnitude 4.6 on 26 November 1910, making it visible to the naked eye.

[8] DI Lacertae dropped from peak brightness by 3 magnitudes in just 43 days, making it a "fast nova".

In the case of DI Lacertae, the orbital period for the binary pair is 13.050 hours, which is unusually long for a nova.

[11] The mass of the white dwarf has been estimated to be 0.91±0.2M☉ In 2017 Sion et al. presented analysis of ultraviolet spectra from the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer and International Ultraviolet Explorer spacecraft, and found the best fit for DI Lacertae to be an accretion disk with a mass accretion rate of 10−10M☉ per year with a 30,000 Kelvin white dwarf.