Another dazzling display of the wonders of space will be visible from Earth in the coming days.

The annual Orionid meteor shower, from Halley’s Comet, is expected to light up the night sky starting this weekend.

Considered by NASA to be ‘one of the most beautiful showers of the year’, the Orionids are the latest astronomical event this month, which already includes a strong solar storm that led to widespread northern lights, the Tsuchinshan-Atlas comet and the year’s brightest supermoon .

“There have been a lot of great celestial events this year alone,” Shawn Dahl, coordinator of NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center, told ABC News, describing them as “a lot of glorious things to see in the sky.”

Here’s what you need to know about the Orionid meteor shower:

What causes the Orionid meteor shower?

According to NASA, the Orionid meteor shower is created every year when Earth passes through the debris of ice and dust left behind by Halley’s Comet.

When the debris trail crosses Earth’s atmosphere, the debris breaks up and creates streaks in the sky, NASA said.

The intensity of the peak activity tends to vary, but they are “much higher than normal” this year, Elizabeth Macdonald, a space physicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, told ABC News.

In a normal year, the Orionids produce 10 to 20 showers per hour, but during exceptional years, such as 2006 to 2009, peak rates were on par with the Perseids, at about 50 to 75 per hour, according to the American Meteorological Society. (AMS).

Where and how to see the Orionid meteor shower

According to NASA, the Orionids can be seen without a telescope from both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. In the Northern Hemisphere, look southeast, and in the Southern Hemisphere, look northeast.

However, light from the supermoon, which began waning Friday, is expected to limit much visibility, Macdonald said.

“The moon will bleach out a lot of meteors,” she said.

But even at a full moon, “relatively bright” Orionid meteors tend to streak across the sky, says Dahl, who does backyard astronomy as a hobby.

Traveling to the darkest possible place will likely increase the chances of seeing the shower, Macdonald said. It’s also important for stargazers to keep their eyes dark-adapted to see the meteors, including avoiding constant interaction with a cell phone’s bright screen, Dahl said.

“In less than 30 minutes in the dark, your eyes will adjust and you will start seeing meteors,” NASA advised. “Be patient, the show lasts until sunrise, so you’ll have plenty of time to catch a glimpse.”

Awareness of the direction in which to look is also important, Dahl said. The meteors tend to “point backwards” as they streak across the sky, so if you look at the radiant in the sky (that is, the point where the meteors’ paths appear to meet) the probability bigger that you see them, Dahl said.

“You have to know the general area of ​​the sky a little bit to be able to see,” Dahl said. “That’s why (meteors) have a name.”

According to NASA, the radiation from meteors is the constellation from which they appear to come from. For the Orionids, the radiant is the constellation Orion.

But there’s no need to look only at the radiant, as the Orionids are visible in the night sky, according to NASA, which recommended viewing the Orionids from 45 to 90 degrees away from the radiant.

What time is the meteor shower?

According to NASA, the Orionids peak in mid-October each year, with the hours after midnight typically being the best viewing times.

The meteor shower is expected to peak on Sunday and Monday, when the moon will be 83% full, according to the AMS.

The best time to see the meteor shower is likely Monday evening, once the supermoon has waned, Macdonald said.