How to see asteroid Apophis from the North East in 2029

Apophis, officially designated 99942 Apophis, is a near-Earth asteroid discovered on June 19, 2004, at the Kitt Peak National Observatory by Roy Tucker, David Tholen, and Fabrizio Bernardi, and was named after the Egyptian god of chaos.

But when asteroid Apophis sweeps past Earth on April 13, 2029, you’ll need clear skies and dark surroundings to see it.

Astronomers expect Apophis to be visible to the naked eye from much of Europe, including the UK, provided observers have reasonably dark, cloud‑free skies.

NASA says the 450‑metre‑wide space rock will skim just 20,000 miles above Earth’s surface on April 13, 2029, closer than many communications satellites.

Its brightness is expected to peak at magnitude 3.1 – similar to the brighter stars in the Plough – making it easily visible to the naked eye from parts of Europe, Africa and Asia.

For those of us in the North East, we could see it as a fast‑moving star tracking across the southern half of the sky, rather than a dramatic flaming fireball.

For the likes of Sunderland, Hartlepool, Darlington and surrounding areas, the key will be getting away from streetlights.

Apophis’s path will carry it across the evening sky over the Eastern Hemisphere, and because it will be so close to Earth, its exact position will shift slightly depending on where you stand – a parallax effect that means observers on Wearside and Teesside will see it in a slightly different part of the sky to viewers in, say, London.

Dark‑sky sites such as the North Pennines and the edge of the North Yorkshire Moors are already highlighted by stargazing guides as some of the best places in England for low‑light, high‑altitude viewing, and those same qualities will make them ideal for Apophis.

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That doesn’t mean you have to trek to a national park.

If the weather plays ball, residents across the region should be able to step outside, find a spot with a clear view of the southern sky – a seafront promenade, a hillside park or even a dark back garden – and watch the asteroid sweep by as a bright point racing against the background stars.

Because it is expected to move at up to 42 degrees per hour across the sky, it will cross a chunk of the heavens in just a few minutes, but local astronomy groups are likely to publish exact times and directions for the UK closer to the date once detailed star‑charts based on NASA’s final trajectory are available.