Meteor Shower Tonight: The annual Eta Aquarid meteor shower will light up the sky starting tonight, but the best time to see it is when it peaks tomorrow morning.

Halley's Comet passed through the inner solar system in 1986 and the Earth still gets a stellar show every year in the form of a meteor shower. Halley's Comet won't make its next pass until the summer of 2061, during its cyclic 76-year journey from just beyond Uranus to within the orbit of Venus.

A meteor shower made up of debris from Halley's Comet will peak overnight tonight.

The Eta Aquarid meteor shower is the first of two annual meteor showers that are brought to us by the dust released by Halley's Comet.

Just before dawn tomorrow morning, Tuesday, May 6, stargazers looking at the eastern sky will stargazers have an opportunity to see the annual Eta Aquarid meteor shower.

NASA and the online Slooh community telescope offering live views of the "shooting stars" display.

Astronomer Bob Berman told the media in a statement "What makes this shower somewhat special is that the meteors stem from the most famous comet in all of history, Comet Halley. As Halley goes around the sun in its 76-year orbit, pieces of it, little chunks of ice, slough off the comet and we intersect that every year around this time, in early May."

NASA meteor scientist Bill Cooke said  "The moon will be waxing crescent so there will be not much interference for early morning meteor observers," Cooke told Space.com in an email. "2014-2016 appears to be at the minimum, so I would not expect the [zenith hourly rate] on the peak night to be much above 40 per hour (maximum on a "good" year is over 80 per hour). However, we can always be surprised, and the good news is that the Eta Aquarid shower has a broad maximum, with the rates above 20 for a few days before/after the peak night."

Under ideal conditions stargazers can see up to 60 meteors per hour. The shower appears at about one-quarter peak strength for several days before and after May 6. To get a better view of the meteor shower, NASA suggest that star gazers get away from city and street lights. Try to pick an isolated spot too since the glare of headlights can actually diminish your night vision.