Astronomers around the world will be able to see Asteroid Florence 3122 using telescopes as it reaches peak brightness tonight (Thursday August 31 into Friday September 1).
In order to find Florence in the night sky, you will need to have a good sky chart in order to plot the asteroid’s path through the stars.
The best time to see the asteroid will be late this evening when it is high overhead before reaching peak brightness late tonight, according to Sky & Telescope magazine.
Senior editor Kelly Beatty said: “Despite some interference from moonlight, 3122 Florence should be fairly easy to spot in even modest backyard telescopes.”
Asteroid Florence will come fly as close as 4.4 million miles (7 million km) to Earth at around 8 am EDT (1pm BST) tomorrow (September 1).
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If you do not have a telescope, you can always watch Asteroid Florence live online tonight.
Watch the Virtual Telescope Project live stream below from 8.30pm BST (3.30pm EDT) to see the Asteroid Florence 3211 close encounter.
The project said: “The potentially hazardous asteroid 3122 Florence will be a nice target in the sky at the end of August, offering us the closest approach, but safe, of an asteroid of this size over the last century.”
Robotic telescope service Slooh is also showing a live stream of the Asteroid on its website at 2am BST (9pm EDT).
If you miss the asteroid tonight you may be able to watch it on Saturday September 3.
The asteroid is moving roughly south to north, passing the constellations of Capricorn, Aquarius, Delphinus, Vulpecula and Cygnus.
Paul Chodas, manager of NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies, said: “Florence is the largest asteroid to pass by our planet this close since the NASA program to detect and track near-Earth asteroids began.”
Sky & Telescope magazine have created the map above to help you spot Asteroid Florence at 11pm EDT as it moves through the constellations.