Asteroid Eros will be making closest approach to Earth on Jan 31. Might get to magnitude 8 or even 7 – visible in backyard telescopes and perhaps even binoculars. It will be closest it’s been to our planet in 37 years. Will be passing through Leo, Sextans and Hydra so will be visible after midnight over next few nights (assuming we get some clear skies). Info can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/845yx8z and charts from Sky&Tel found in this PDF file: http://tinyurl.com/79cbdxo . It should be moving fast enough to notice motion over a short period of time making it easier to identify.