The Orionid meteor shower reaches its peak tonight, Wednesday, Oct. 21, into Thursday morning, and skies over Van Alstyne should cooperate.
The National Weather Service forecast for the area calls for a clear night with a low around 57 and little wind.
Watch the moon
The catch this year is a bright moon. The American Meteor Society says the moon will be about 75% lit on peak night and warns of significant interference while it is up, though brighter meteors can still show through.
For Van Alstyne, the moon sets at 3:53 a.m. Thursday, according to the U.S. Naval Observatory. Morning twilight begins at 7:11 a.m., which leaves a window of a little more than three hours of moon-free darkness before dawn.
What to expect
In a typical year the Orionids produce 10 to 20 meteors an hour at the maximum, according to the meteor society, which notes the shower has occasionally run much stronger, as it did from 2006 to 2009. Recent years have been low to average.
The shower stays active through Nov. 7, so the nights after the peak offer more chances, though the moon will be brighter and set later each night.
The meteors are bits of dust shed by Halley's Comet, NASA says. They hit the atmosphere at about 41 miles per second, and some leave glowing trails that linger for seconds or minutes.
