Daniel Stefanus du Toit was born in Springfontein, in the Free State, South Africa, on 15 December 1917, he was educated at the Sentraal High school Hoërskool Sentraal in Bloemfontein, after school he entered employment at the Boyden Observatory (Harvard College Observatory, Boyden station) at Maselspoort in 1936, and became the chief assistant to the director dr John S. Paraskevopoulos.

The exposures were generally 45 minutes on Cramer High Speed Blue plates, or later Kodak 103a, taken with the 10-inch Metcalf or 8-inch Bache telescopes.

[4] Uncertainties in the calculation of the orbit meant the comet was lost until rediscovered by Malcolm Hartley of the UK Schmidt Telescope Unit, Siding Spring, Australia in 1982, when it was found to have broken into two parts, probably in 1976.

Discoverers: Daniel du Toit, Malcolm Hartley Discovered: on 9 April 1945 with a brightness of apparent magnitude 10.

The 1937 team consisted of Dr Paraskevopoulos, Bester, Du Toit, de Villiers and Steyn.