The 2009 Orionid Meteor Shower

The false-color images above are composite images from 2009 Orionids meteor shower observations, as seen in the skies over Huntsville, Ala.

"Earth is passing through a stream of debris from Halley's Comet, the source of the Orionids," says Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office.

"Flakes of comet dust hitting the atmosphere should give us dozens of meteors per hour."

The best time to look was before sunrise on Wednesday, Oct. 21st. That's when Earth encountered the densest part of Halley's debris stream.

Orionids appear every year around this time when Earth orbits through an area of space littered with debris from the ancient comet.

Normally, the shower produces 10 to 20 meteors per hour, a modest display. The past few years, however, have been much better than usual. "Since 2006, the Orionids have been one of the best showers of the year, with counts of 60 or more meteors per hour," says Cooke.