SIRIUS, Alpha Canis Majoris, 9CMa.
The bad news is that we here in the Southern half of Africa will not see it.
It will be visible from large parts of the United States, Mexico and Canada at about 23H30 CST.
Sirius is the brightest star in the night skies, it shines at a magnitude of -1.46. and is a double star in the constellation Canis Major, the companion star shines at a magnitude of +8.50. and the two are the fifth closest star system to ours. Below is a image from SkySafari showing the nearest star systems to ours and a image showing both Sirius and it's "pup". All images courtesy of SkySafari 6 Pro.
You will require a medium to large aperture scope to split the two in the eyepiece.
Sirius B or "The Pup" sits in close to Sirius A with a separation of only 2.5" to 11.3". The two are about 20 AU from each other. The image above is zoomed in to exaggerate the separation, through the eyepiece they are barely separated.
There is some debate as to how much Sirius will dim or even wink out for a moment. Some websites are reporting a few tenths of a second where Sirius will disappear and others claim a considerable dimming instead. With the asteroid not having a large enough diameter it may not be big enough to completely cover Sirius, so I suspect more of a dimming than anything else,
You can see more on this HERE.
Asteroid 4388 Jurgenstock is approximately 4.690 kilometers across with a rotation period of 2.81 hours.
It orbits the sun in the inner main asteroid belt at a distance of 1,7 to 3 AU every 3 years and 7 months.
So if you are in the right place at the right time...
Below are two images courtesy of SkySafari 6 Pro, the first depicts Sirius in comparison to other stars and the second image is a chart of where to see Sirius in the night skies from a southern hemisphere perspective.
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