Dust from Halley's Comet is to light up the sky above Ireland overnight, with shooting stars passing overhead.

Dust particles known as Orionids create an annual meteor show that will begin around 9pm this evening but is best seen at midnight.

At the peak of the shower there will be roughly 20 shooting stars per hour, and no telescope is needed to see them.

"The Orionids will probably show weaker activity than usual this year,” Bill Cooke of the NASA Meteoroid Environments Office said.

“Bits of comet dust hitting the atmosphere will probably give us about a dozen meteors per hour."

However even if the number of shooting stars is relatively low the show will still be well worth taking in, Cooke says. "Even if the shower is a dud, the rest of the sky is dynamite," he said.

If you're cursed with clouds or light pollution in your area makes seeing the intricacies of the night sky difficult you can see the show on NASA's live stream from their Marshall Space Flight Centre, on UStream.