If you are located in a narrow path, running from India though the Middle East and towards France, and you are interested in monitoring asteroids, keep reading. The asteroid 2005 UW 381 will pass in front of the super giant star Betelgeuse (the brightest star in the constellation of Orion). The transit will occur on January 2 2012 between 21:16 UT and 21:31 UT depending on your location. Due to the small apparent diameter of the asteroid compared to the larger apparent diameter of Betelgeuse, the light from Betelgeuse is expected to only drop 0.01 in magnitude during the transit. The dimming is not expected to be noticed by visual observers.
More information can be found here.
