Will the Betelgeuse eclipse be visible tonight on the Treasure Coast?

If you plan to look up at the sky and see a rare eclipse tonight, put the telescope and binoculars away. The Treasure Coast won't be in the direct sight path of the celestial event.

Asteroid Leona will fly through the sky and briefly cover Betelgeuse, one of the stars making up the Orion constellation, covering the star and creating a seconds-long eclipse.

"While we will see Betelgeuse here on the Treasure Coast tonight, weather permitting, the Treasure Coast is just a little too far to the north to see the asteroid Leona block our view of the red giant star," explained Jon Bell, director of the Hallstrom Planetarium at Indian River State College.

Betelgeuse is a red supergiant star with a red-orange hue. It is roughly 10 million years old and 700 light-years away, according to NASA. It is one of the largest stars visible to the naked eye.

Where will the rare eclipse be visible in Florida?

The eclipse will be visible around 8:24 p.m., according to Bell.

The path of visibility will begin near Fort Lauderdale and stretch south to the Florida Keys, according to OccultWatcher, an online program tracking predictions for astronomical events.

But blink and you might miss it. The eclipse is expected to last less than 15 seconds as asteroid Leona flies through the sky passing the star Betelgeuse.

Seeing asteroid Leona occult Betelgeuse is already going to be difficult since it's in a "very narrow path of occultation," according to Bell. An occultation is when a planet or asteroid in the solar system appears to pass in front of a distant star from our point of view.

Gianna Montesano is TCPalm’s trending reporter. You can contact her at gianna.montesano@tcpalm.com, 772-409-1429, or follow her on X (formerly Twitter) @gonthescene.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: When is the Betelgeuse and Leona eclipse?