Watch the Orionid Meteor Shower Tonight

If you are a very early riser, or just planning on pulling an all-nighter, you could be lucky enough to catch a few meteors streaking across the sky just before the Sun comes up tomorrow morning.

That's because the time of the annual Orionid meteor shower is upon us, when the sky comes alive with little streaks of light. According to NASA's Bill Cooke of the Meteoroid Environment Office, the shower normally produces 20 or so meteors per hour.

But just what makes these meteors reappear like clockwork each year anyways?

"Earth is passing through a stream of debris from Halley's Comet, the source of the Orionids," Cooke explained in a statement. "Bits of comet dust hitting the atmosphere should give us a couple dozen of meteors per hour."

These bits of ice, stone, and dust enter the atmosphere only to briefly flare up and burn away, leaving short streaks of light across the sky. They also briefly ionize air molecules along their path. This path of ions can scatter and reflect radio waves, causing FM signals to briefly travel much farther than they normally would.

Because of this, even if poor weather or local light pollution is making the Orionid hard to see, you can still listen to it by tuning into a "dead" FM station on your radio. With small pops, a random far away station will tune in and out for a few seconds at a time, marking that the shower is in full swing.

The best time to look for Orionid meteors is just before sunrise on Tuesday, Oct. 21. That's when Earth encounters the densest part of Halley's debris stream. The meteors should be easy to spot, and they will appear to be coming from the well-known constellation Orion, which earned the shower its name.

NASA will also be streaming a live broadcast of the Orionid meteor shower via Ustream beginning Oct. 20 at 10 pm EDT.