One of the most spectacular meteor showers in Earth's skies is about to peak, and the observing conditions couldn't be better.

On the night of October 21, up to 20 meteors per hour could streak through the sky – the same night as a new Moon, which is when the Moon lies between Earth and the Sun and doesn't appear against the night sky.

This means that the Orionids, whose radiant lies in the constellation of Orion, should be highly visible without the Moon 's glare obscuring their light.

The Orionids come around every year in late October, and they're the result of debris shed by Halley's comet in its 76-year orbit around the Sun. Every year, Earth passes through this comet detritus, and particles of it inevitably tumble into our atmosphere, where they burn up as they fall.

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