How to Watch the 2017 Orionid Meteor Shower

If you're outside late in the coming days, look up to catch a sky show created by Halley's comet.

Night owls, rejoice: From midnight to dawn in the coming days, stargazers with clear skies will be able to see the peak of the 2017 Orionid meteor shower. And thanks to a mostly moonless sky, the Orionids promise to be one of the most beautiful celestial shows of the year.

Meteors are chunks of space rock that become visible when they enter Earth's atmosphere. The pieces typically range in size from grains of sand to small boulders, and they can shoot through the sky at speeds of over 160,000 miles an hour. (See a fireball meteor that surprised sky-watchers during a harvest moon festival earlier this year.)

The Orionids flare up when Earth moves through a field of debris created

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