It was discovered by John Search of Chatsworth Island, New South Wales, Australia on 19.708 January 2018, using a DSLR with a 50 mm F/1.2 lens.

[3] FM Circini reached a peak brightness of magnitude 5.8 on 22 March 2018, making it visible to the naked eye.

[2] FM Circini's outburst and decline from peak brightness was observed by the Gaia spacecraft, the All Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae and AAVSO observers.

[5][6] The nova rose slowly to peak brightness, and then fluctuated between magnitude ~6.5 and ~8.5 for about three months, before beginning a nearly monotonic decline.

[6] It took 150 days for FM Circini to fade from peak brightness by 2 magnitudes, which makes it a "slow" nova in the classification scheme of Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin.