Path for 2005 YU55, times shown are Greenwich Mean Time. Subtract 6 hours to get Central Time in the US

When YU55 rolls past closest approach to earth this evening, a comfortable 200,000 miles away thank goodness, you won’t be able to see it with your unaided eye or even a small telescope. It would take a decent sized amateur scope just to see the little starlike point moving from west to east toward the constellation Pegasus in the hours before and after 6:28 PM EDT. But NASA has set up two websites that will have excellent viewing!

(Cosmic Log)– NASA is offering two main portals to asteroid imagery: Asteroid and Comet Watch on the main NASA site, and Asteroid Watch on the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s website. Both those sites should feature the latest and greatest images available to the space agency, and you should be able to see movies of YU55’s encounter by late Tuesday or Wednesday.