The Orionid meteor shower peaks early on Wednesday, Oct. 21, and this year’s show could be unusally good according to NASA forecasts.

“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 is before sunrise on Wednesday,” said Tony Phillips in an article published Monday on the “Science@NASA” Web site. “That’s when Earth encounters the densest part of Halley’s debris stream.”

The Moon will cooperate by being absent from the pre-dawn sky on Wednesday morning.

Look for the meteors to radiate from the southeastern sky between the constellations of Orion, the hunter, and Gemini, the twins. Orion is easy to find due to the three bright stars that mark Orion’s belt.

Observing is easy according to Phillips. “Wake up a few hours before dawn, brew some hot chocolate, go outside and look up. No telescope is required to see Orionids shooting across the sky.”

In recent years, the Orionid meteors have been averaging well above their normal 10-to-20-meteors an hour. “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.