The following 3 images by Michael Jäger and Gerald Rhemann taken on May 15 2004 while on an
astronomical holiday in Namibia show a faint image of C/2004 Q2 (Machholz), not far from the tail 
of C/2002 T7 (LINEAR). The comet was about magnitude 13 at the time, sothat it is not surprising
that the comet was not noted earlier...
N.B. Michael Jäger informed me that the correct time of these images was 3:25 UT (and not 4:25).