The Orionid meteor shower 2011 will be seen on Friday, the dawn of October 21. So if you want to catch the meteor shower, you can either sleep early to wake up at dawn or not to sleep at all. The skies may not be perfectly dark but it will not be too bad for an amazing show.

The Earth passes the debris streams left by Halley’s Comet when it slowly revolves around the sun. These debris become the Orionid meteor shower. It may not be as massive or as plenty to be called meteor storm, but Orionid is considered to be the most predictable meteor shower yearly.

“Every year around this time Earth glides through a cloud of dusty debris from Halley’s Comet,” says Bill Cooke, a representative from the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. “It’s not an intense shower but it is a pretty one.”

An average of 10 to 25 meteorites per hour is observed during the Otionid meteor shower. It will begin before the midnight strikes on October 20 and will continue to its peak before the dawn breaks on October 21.

Though Halley’s commet already left the inner Solar System, the trail of its debris remains organized which helps us in predicting the exact date and time when the meteor shower will happen.

“Earth comes close to the orbit of Halley’s Comet twice a year, once in May and again in October,”says Don Yeoman, NASA’s Near Earth Object Program manager.

These meteors are very fast, and although faint (average magnitude 3), occasional fireballs do leave persistent trails that shimmer in the upper atmosphere. It’s the “Oooooh!” effect!”

In order to enjoy the Orionid meteor shower, find a dark sky and look towards the east. Those who are familiar with the constellation, Orion, can easily locate it. But for those who are not, try looking for three starts in a vertical row which form Orion’s belt.