Donati's Comet over Notre-Dame, Paris, France, on 4 October 1858, illustration. The comet was named after its discoverer, the Italian astronomer Giovanni Battista Donati (1826-1873). Donati discovered the comet on 2 June 1858. The comet brightened over the following months, reaching its closest point to Earth on 10 October 1858. It was one of the brightest and most spectacular comets of the 19th century, and the first to be photographed. Here, the comet is above the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris, which is on the Ile de la Cite, an island in the Seine. Illustration published in 'Le Ciel' (The Sky, 1877) by French author Amedee Guillemin.