Don't Miss the Orionid Meteor Shower! How to Watch Halley’s Comet Debris Light Up the Sky Tonight!

The famous Halley’s comet is about halfway through its roughly 76-year orbit of the sun, having reached its farthest point from its host star in December 2023. The comet won’t be visible in the night sky until 2061.

But the debris the comet leaves in its trail — otherwise known as the Orionid meteor shower — causes meteors to streak through Earth’s atmosphere.

The annual celestial display will be most visible during its peak Sunday night into Monday, with an estimated rate of 10 to 20 meteors per hour, according to the American Meteor Society.

The best time to see the Orionids will be any time after midnight when constellation Orion — which is the Orionids’ radiant, or the area from which meteors appear to originate — is high in the sky, said Robert Lunsford, the fireball report coordinator for the American Meteor Society. The display will be visible in all parts of the world except Antarctica, where the sun currently does not set, he added.