Want to see 2005 YU55? There it is… it’s dim, but it’s visible – especially to the 25-inch telescope at the Clay Center Observatory in Massachusetts! The image above is from a live feed the observatory was airing on Ustream, taken as the asteroid came to its closest distance to Earth at 6:28 pm EST. It’s estimated to have been 329,000 km (204,400 miles) away at the time this image was taken.

The streaks are stars; the colored dots are bad pixels on the CCD sensor. YU55 is the bright point in the middle.

Turned out to be a nice flyby… especially with such a large telescope at hand! (And a live feed, too!)

Image: Clay Center Observatory/Ustream

Added 11/9: here’s a video of the flyby, taken from the Starhoo Observatory in Lakeville, Massachusetts.