A large asteroid will pass by Earth on Monday/Tuesday (Jan 26-27) providing amateur astronomers a unique viewing opportunity. An asteroid is considered to be of considerable concern when it is larger than 100 meters and passes within 20 Earth-to-Moon distances. Asteroid 2004 BL86 is approximately 550 meters across and will pass within 3 Earth-to-Moon distances. The size and proximity of the asteroid will allow amateur astronomers to view it with just the aid of a low-cost telescope or even a pair of binoculars. Optimum viewing time is January 26 between 11:07 pm and 11:52 pm ET (04:07 and 04:52 GMT).

For those not in the optimum viewing area (Americas, Europe, Africa) and/or those dealing with obscured skies, live internet feeds are being provided by NASA Marshall’s Ustream feed and also by the Virtual Telescope Project in Italy.

More details are available from RT and the Huntsville Times.