While already astronomers are seeing Orioid meteors streaking across the dark night sky, it isn't until after midnight tonight and early in the morning tomorrow that the show is at its best.

With favorable weather conditions in Alaska for tonight’s viewing, viewers won’t be disappointed with the display.

While the Orionids are not the strongest of the meteor showers that make their appearance every year, the Orionids are one of the most beautiful of shows. The Orionid meteor shower will be viewable in a sky devoid of the moon, as it sets around midnight, offering an unimpeded view of most of the show until the early morning hours prior to sunrise, when the shower will be at its celestial best.

The Orionid meteor showers are produced from the debris of Hally’s Comet, which passed the earth as recently as 1986. The earth passes through this debris field twice a year.

If the meteor shower is the result of Halley’s Comet, then why are they called the Orionids you may ask. The meteors from annual showers are named after the point in the sky where the shower seems to eminate from. In the case of the Orionids, the showers radiate out from the constellation of Orion the Hunter. The other instance of earth’s passing through the debris field of this comet happens in May every year. That shower is called the Eta Aquarids. That shower can be seen emanating from the constellation Aquarius.

The meteors from this shower are the second fastest meteor display of all of the showers. This distinction allows the sky viewers to see fast yellow and green meteors and the ocasional fireball. At around 147,300 miles per hour, the speeds of the meteors in the Orionids are only surpassed by the meteors in the Leonids that arrive every November.

The shower generally produces approximately 25 meteors an hour every year, but, this year as it peaks in the early morning hours Sunday, one may be able to see as many as 60 meteors an hour. Head of the Meteoroid Environment Office, Bill Cooke says that NASA’s All-Sky cameras are already picking up high meteor rates that surpass prior years.

Look to the general southern skies for the Orion constellation. The meteor shower will seem to emanate from Orion’s Club, pierce Taurus the Bull, the Gemini Twins, Leo the Lion and finally Canis Major.

While the skies should be clear over most of Alaska tonight and tomorrow morning, it will be rather chilly, so dress warm and enjoy October’s celestial show.