Zanotti spotted the comet in the constellation of
Lynx on 27 May. He described it as a magnitude 3 star surrounded by nebulosity, while a tail 2 degrees long was spotted using a telescope. Zanotti followed the comet with the naked eye until 17 August, when it was only visible via a telescope. He last observed the comet the next day. It was also observed by
James Bradley from 30 May to 10 June and Fuhrmann from June 8 to June 19. The parabolic orbit calculated by
Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille indicates it passed perihelion on 17.9 June. The comet had passed at a distance of 0.45 AU on 16 April 1739. The comet has a minimum orbital intersection distance with Earth of 0.049 AU and has been associated with the Leo Minorids
meteor shower. In 1929,
Tadeusz Banachiewicz initially noted some similarities with the preliminary orbit of the then-newly discovered comet,
C/1929 Y1 (Wilk), indicating a potential return of Comet Zanotti. However, the claim was later refuted and both comets are unrelated to each other. == References ==