Rob Cardinal, an astronomer at the University of Calgary's Rothney Astrophysical Observatory, is the second Canadian observer to discover a comet using a Canadian telescope this decade. The discovery was made on 1 October 2008 with the observatory's 0.5m f/1.0 Baker-Nunn telescope. Cardinal was using this wide-field instrument to search for asteroids at the time of the discovery. Observatory director Phil Langill credits the local community's light-pollution abatement efforts for keeping the skies dark just 35 km outside of Calgary.

An ephemeris and other data are available in MPEC 2008-T88.

University of Calgary press release

Comet Cardinal image by Dave Lane, Halifax Centre