Asteroid 2004 BL86 Earth flyby

The asteroid will reach its closest point to Earth at 1620 UT on Jan. 26.

An asteroid, designated 2004 BL86, will safely pass about three times the distance of Earth to the moon on January 26. From its reflected brightness, astronomers estimate that the asteroid is about a third of a mile (0.5 kilometers) in size. The flyby of 2004 BL86 will be the closest by any known space rock this large until asteroid 1999 AN10 flies past Earth in 2027. At the time of its closest approach on January 26, the asteroid will be approximately 745,000 miles (1.2 million kilometers) from Earth. source NASA.

BL86 will be travelling through the constellations Hydra and Cancer visible in the south-southeast sky and should be between Jupiter and the Sirius. By 0600UT it will be making a close pass of the Beehive star cluster. Travelling at speeds of 56,000 km/h, it will appear to traverse the width of the full moon in just ten minutes. So the best way to identify positively that you have found the asteroid is to watch it move quickly across the backdrop of fixed stars. In the overnight hours its estimated brightness is pegged to be around 9.5 magnitude, making it just visible with large binoculars and an easy target through small backyard telescopes. source.

SkyLive tracker: http://theskylive.com/2004bl86-tracker

SGL thread: http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/234215-asteroid-2004-bl86-is-coming/