[6] It was discovered by John Tebbutt of Windsor, New South Wales, Australia, on May 13, 1861, with an apparent magnitude of +4, a month before perihelion (June 12).

In his Astronomical Memoirs, Tebbutt gave an account of his discovery:[11] ... On the evening of May 13, 1861, while searching the western sky for comets, I detected a faint nebulous object near the star Lacaille 1316 in the constellation Eridanus.

The wind died gently away, as the sun declined, leaving a calm, and sleeping sea, to reflect a myriad of stars.

The sun had gone down behind a screen of purple, and gold, and to add to the beauty of the scene, as night set in, a blazing comet, whose tail spanned nearly a quarter of the heavens, mirrored itself within a hundred feet of our little bark, as she ploughed her noiseless way through the waters.

[12]Samuel Elliott Hoskins, a doctor from Guernsey, observed: At 9 p.m. a large luminous disc surrounded by a nebulous haze became visible in the N.W.

At 9.40 it unmistakably assumed the character, to the naked eye, of a comet, having a large nucleus & a fan-like tail projecting vertically towards the zenith.

A brilliant and beautiful comet appeared tonight in the same part of the heavens as that a few years ago, the train of this it the longest that I ever saw, pointing directly upwards.

[16][17]Martin Bienvenu, an officer on a ship at Bangkok, in his unpublished journal: A very brilliant comet had been visible in the Northern sky during the preceding week.

Haig, the Chief Astronomer of the 49th Parallel Boundary Commission in British Columbia, wrote in a letter home We saw a large comet for the first time last night, although I have no doubt it has been seen some days earlier in England.

[20] Charles Wilson, surveyor on the Boundary Commission with Haig, wrote We caught sight of the Comet for the first time the night before last, to our great surprise as the lightness of the evenings had prevented our noticing his approach; he bids fair to eclipse the one of 1858 in size and splendour.

Watson, a tea inspector for the British firm Bull & Purdon writes from Hong Kong: There is a very brilliant comet to be seen every evening as large as the one seen in England in 1858.

[23]Sarah Lois Wadley, daughter of William Morrill Wadley who managed the Vicksburg, Shreveport and Texas Railroad and served as Confederate superintendent of railroads, writes in her diary from Vicksburg, Mississippi: There has been a comet visible for some nights past, I went out to see it Friday night, it was very beautiful, but its brightness was beginning to wane.