THERE'S a meteor shower happening this week, peaking overnight on the 21st and 22nd, but contrary to what you will read in breathlessly-giddy posts on social media the Orionid meteor shower will not "light up the sky" and shooting stars will not "blaze through the night."

Sadly, every meteor shower, eclipse, asteroid flyby or comet is hyped-up and misreported now by journalists who know nothing about astronomy, and this will be no exception.

What might you actually see then?

If you were observing under perfect conditions you might expect to see maybe 15 Orionid meteors every hour - but you won't be.

For a start there will be an almost Full Moon blazing in the sky which will cut down the number of faint shooting stars visible, leaving only the really bright ones to be seen. 

Also the part of the sky the meteors zip out of - the constellation of Orion, hence the shower's name - is low in the sky during the peak of the shower, which also reduces the number of shooting stars.

Add in light pollution, and the number shrinks even more.

But this doesn't mean you shouldn't keep an eye open for the meteor shower - just don't expect too much.

You can improve your chances by getting out to somewhere with a big view of the sky, and where there is no light pollution, but there'll be no escaping that big bright Moon.

If you do see an Orionid meteor you'll be seeing a tiny piece of dust burning up in the atmosphere that was once part of Halley's Comet.

Orionids are often bright and very fast and leave ghostly trails behind after they have faded, so cross your fingers and look out for them this week.