The comet was discovered on 2 July 1862
Johann Friedrich Julius Schmidt, then director of the
National Observatory of Athens, and a few hours later was discovered by
Wilhelm Tempel, at
Marseille Observatory. The comet upon discovery was located in the constellation
Cassiopeia and Schmidt described the comet as being tailless, with a coma 22 arcminutes across, and visible with the
naked eye. Temple estimated its magnitude to be 4–5. Schmidt observed the comet again on July 4 and noted a tail half a degree long. The comet passed at a distance of from Earth on 4 July, making it the fourth closest known approach of a comet to Earth in the 19th century. Consequently the comet moved away from both the Earth and the Sun, while brightening moonlight hampered observations. The comet was last observed with the naked eye on 7 July. The comet faded rapidly throughout the month and it was last observed on 31 July. == Meteors ==