Friday's Asteroid Fly-by

How to spot asteroid 2012 DA14

Amateur astronomers are eagerly anticipating the approach on Friday 15 February of an asteroid, 2012 DA14, which will be the closest 'near miss' to Earth than any other in recent years. At about 19:45 on that day the 50-metre asteroid will be just 35,000 km from the UK, which is just within the ring of geostationary satellites.
It will be possible to view the object from the UK, weather permitting, using amateur instruments, even binoculars. The map above shows the part of the sky where it will appear, looking north-east at 8 pm. But it won’t be a walk in the park, because the object will not be particularly bright, at 8th magnitude. Although in theory it will be visible using only small binoculars, in practice from most UK sites this will be close to the limit of what you can easily see.

And as it’s moving more quickly through the sky than any other predicted natural object we’ve observed, viewers will need to look in precisely that right place at any particular time to be sure of spotting it.

If you miss it you can watch the February 15 asteroid flyby online, in real-time.

Thanks to the Society for Popular Astronomy

Latest from NASA:

NASA Follows Asteroid Flyby
Friday, Feb. 15, 2013 at 11 a.m. PST (2 p.m. EST)
For more information, including graphics and animations showing the flyby of 2012 DA14, visit:
www.nasa.gov/asteroidflyby