It was discovered by Nicholas Sanduleak on an objective prism photographic plate taken at the Warner and Swasey Observatory on 4 November 1964.

QZ Aurigae is classified as a "fast nova", because it dropped from peak brightness by three magnitudes in less than 100 days.

The depth of the eclipses, 1.2 magnitudes in blue light, is unusually large, indicating that both the white dwarf and the inner accretion disk surrounding it are fully occulted at mid eclipse.

[8] Schaeffer used small changes in the orbital period, along with other observational data, to derive a mass of 0.98 M☉ for the white dwarf, and 0.93 M☉ for the donor star as well as a mass transfer rate of 3×10−8 M☉ per year.

[9] The donor star is a red dwarf with a spectral type of K1.