DA14

Here at the Boggy Thicket, we haven’t had much luck viewing celestial events lately.  Recent meteor showers and lunar eclipses have been obscured by heavy clouds, and now tomorrow’s big event – the near-earth passage of a huge asteroid known as DA14 – will only be visible on the other side of the earth. 

The 150-foot object will pass within 17,000 miles of the Earth. NASA scientists insist there is absolutely no chance of a collision as it passes, but commentary, real-time imagery and a telescopic view of the asteroid can all be seen by computer.

A half-hour commentary broadcast from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena will be available online starting at 11 a.m. PST (9 a.m. here) via NASA TV and streamed live online at http://www.nasa.gov/ntv and http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2.

Near real-time imagery of the asteroid's flyby before and after its closest approach -- made available to NASA by astronomers in the dark skies of Australia and Europe, weather permitting -- will be streamed beginning about 9 a.m. PST (7a.m. Central) and continuing through the afternoon at this website: http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2.