Comet 85D/Boethin was the first comet discovered by an observer in the Philippines.[5] Leo Boethin (1912-1998), who was assigned as Reverend of the Abra province in 1949, had taken advantage of the exceptionally dark skies of Luzon to observe comets and meteor showers. In January 1973, he found his first suspected comet at magnitude 9.5, but he saw it fading after a few nights down to magnitude 13 before he could send a telegram with his observations to Brian Marsden at the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams. Marsden, sceptical of the report, responded that a short-lived outburst was possible, but that the discovery could not be confirmed.