X/1872 X1 (Pogson)

As a result, the astronomer Ernst Friedrich Wilhelm Klinkerfues sent a telegram to Pogson, at the Madras Observatory, stating that "Biela touched Earth on 27th: search near Theta Centauri".

[2][3] Pogson began searching for the comet at around 4 a.m. local time on the 3rd, after cloudy weather had hampered observations for two nights.

The clouds broke up for a period of around ten minutes, and at 05.15 he spotted an object, "evidently cometary at the first glance",[3] which he recorded as "circular, bright, with a decided nucleus": he identified it to his satisfaction as Biela's Comet by comparing its rate of motion against background stars.

[2] A number of orbits were subsequently published for Pogson's object by Karl Bruhns (1875) and Heinrich Kreutz (1886 and 1902), but being based on only three positions are rather speculative.

The Irish astronomer William Henry Stanley Monck was later to suggest that "the comets of Pogson and Biela may belong to the same family and may co-operate in producing the same diffused meteor shower".

Primary and secondary components of Biela's Comet, drawn by Secchi on its final observed return in 1852. Pogson's object was initially thought to be a recovery of Biela.