Apophis: one night, one pass
On 13 April 2029 the ~375 m asteroid (99942) Apophis passes less than 32,000 km above Earth's surface — inside the ring of geostationary satellites (ESA). For a few evening hours it will be visible to the naked eye from Europe, Africa and western Asia: a faint star, gliding. An object this size comes this close roughly once in 7,500 years, and there is no impact risk — observations, including the 2021 radar campaign, rule one out for at least the next century.
13 April 2029
Eclipse day approaches
Two good reference resources already exist: apophis-2029.org (observation guide) and eclipseatlas.com (hourly visibility maps). What they don't do is compare places — and for an object this faint, the place decides everything. That comparison is below.
The two moments that matter
- Peak brightness, ≈20:00–21:00 UT: the published maximum is about magnitude 3.1; JPL Horizons puts it at 2.8–2.9 from the sites below at 20:30 UT. That is Big-Dipper-star brightness — obvious from a dark site, marginal from a suburb, gone from a city core.
- Closest approach, ≈21:46 UT (over the Atlantic, west of Africa): the asteroid is nearest but already fading and, from eastern sites, sinking. West is late-friendly; east should watch early.
Where to stand — the comparison
Sky altitude and darkness are computed per site from the JPL Horizons ephemeris; April cloud is the ERA5 reanalysis mean (April differs a lot from the August numbers on our eclipse pages); sky-darkness classes lean on official certifications where they exist; effort uses the site-wide formula. Sort any column.
| Location | Alt @ peak | Alt @ closest | April cloud | Sky darkness | Effort | Local peak |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🇪🇸 Tarifa / Costa de la Luz The 2027 coast works again — drive inland from the shore glow and it is an easy, good sky. | 49° | 55° | ≈47% | Rural coast; Bay-of-Gibraltar glow east | 2 / 5 | 22:30 CEST |
| 🇪🇸 La Palma (Roque area) Legally protected observatory sky with the asteroid 68° up at closest approach — the connoisseur pick. | 47° | 68° | ≈45% | Certified — Starlight Reserve, sky law | 2 / 5 | 21:30 WEST |
| 🇪🇸 Tenerife (Teide, ~2,200 m) Altitude beats the island cloud sea; big-airport access makes it the easiest world-class sky. | 48° | 67° | ≈40% | Certified — Starlight; above the inversion | 2 / 5 | 21:30 WEST |
| 🇲🇦 Ouarzazate Dry pre-Saharan skies, real hotels, short transfer to true dark — the balanced Morocco base. | 53° | 57° | ≈28% | Rural dark; modest town glow | 2 / 5 | 21:30 (+1) |
| 🇲🇦 Merzouga (Erg Chebbi) Dune-field darkness with tourist camps in place; the long drive is the price. | 55° | 54° | ≈26% | Deep-desert dark (uncertified) | 3 / 5 | 21:30 (+1) |
| 🇩🇿 Tamanrasset (Ahaggar) The highest peak-window altitude on this list — but Algerian visas are slow and much of the deep south sits under travel advisories. Check before planning. | 67° | 43° | ≈25% | Deep-desert dark (uncertified) | 4 / 5 | 21:30 (+1) |
| 🇪🇬 Siwa Oasis Superb at the bright window, sinking by closest approach — watch early here. Same long road as the eclipse. | 58° | 26° | ≈21% | Deep-desert dark (uncertified) | 4 / 5 | 22:30 EET |
| 🇮🇱 Mitzpe Ramon (Negev) A certified dark-sky park with the show in the late evening; low by closest approach. Check current advisories nearer the date. | 52° | 18° | ≈25% | Certified — IDA dark-sky park (Ramon Crater) | 2 / 5 | 23:30 IDT |
| 🇯🇴 Wadi Rum The clearest April sky on the list and desert camps built for stargazers; the asteroid is highest before local midnight. | 52° | 17° | ≈20% | Desert dark; protected area | 2 / 5 | 23:30 (+3) |
| 🇬🇷 Central Crete Mountain villages give honest darkness at European convenience; April cloud is the coin-toss. | 52° | 28° | ≈41% | Rural dark inland; coastal glow | 2 / 5 | 23:30 EEST |
| 🇮🇹 Rome — city contrast Included to make the point: geometry is fine, but a magnitude-3 point is marginal-to-invisible from a city core. Drive out. | 47° | 39° | ≈51% | City core — heavily light-polluted | 1 / 5 | 22:30 CEST |
| 🇬🇧 London — city contrast Visible on paper, defeated by skyglow and April cloud in practice. This event rewards leaving the city. | 36° | 46° | ≈65% | City core — heavily light-polluted | 1 / 5 | 21:30 BST |
Local times assume the 2029 clock rules as currently legislated (CEST/WEST/IDT etc.) — governments occasionally change DST; re-check nearer the date. London and Rome are included as honest negatives, not recommendations.
How to read it
- Light pollution outranks everything else. A magnitude-3 point that moves is easy at a dark site and genuinely hard under skyglow. This is the factor the reference maps don't weigh, and it is why the desert and certified-dark rows lead.
- The Canaries are the geometry winners — 67–68° up at closest approach with legally protected skies; their trade is more April cloud than the Sahara and a flight.
- The Sahara belt (Morocco → Algeria → Egypt) has the driest April and true darkness; effort and, for Algeria, advisories are the price.
- Southern Spain works again. The same Costa de la Luz that stars in our 2027 guide gets Apophis 49–55° up in a properly dark rural sky — one region, two once-in-a-lifetime events two years apart.
Set expectations now: this is not a fireball. It is a faint star that crosses about a Moon-width of sky per minute. That slow, deliberate motion — a mountain-sized body traversing your sky — is the entire show, and knowing that in advance is the difference between awe and disappointment. What to expect and how to find it →
What Apophis is & how to see it · Photographing it · All sky events
Sources: ESA Planetary Defence (distance, size, risk status); NASA JPL Horizons (per-site altitudes & magnitudes, queried 2026-08-09); closest-approach time ≈21:46 UT and peak window as published by NASA/ESA-aligned references; ERA5 via Open-Meteo (April cloud, 2000–2024). Method: /methodology.