Orionid meteor showers to peak Thursday

HUNTSVILLE, Ala., Oct. 20 (UPI) -- The annual Orionid meteor showers will reach their climax in the wee hours of Thursday morning this week.

Sky-watchers will have their best chance of seeing a few of the streaking meteors during the hours just prior to Thursday's sunrise. Those who would rather stay up late than get up early will likely be able to spot a few shooting stars Wednesday night.

Either way, experts say expectations should be dampened. The intensity of the Orionids varies from year to year.

"The Orionids will probably show weaker activity than usual this year," Bill Cooke, an astronomer with the NASA Meteoroid Environments Office, said in a blog post. "Bits of comet dust hitting the atmosphere will probably give us about a dozen meteors per hour."

The Orionids are named for the constellation Orion, from which the streaking meteors appear to originate in the sky. The shooting stars are actually bits of debris left by the tail of Haley's comet. The fragments burn up in Earth's atmosphere.

A live feed of the overnight meteor showers will be filmed from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Md., and streamed online.