Curious watchers are hoping to catch a glimpse of up to 1,000 shooting stars an hour as Earth passes through the tail end of a comet.

“Imagine a thousand shooting stars per hour. It could be one every five to 10 seconds. It could be really spectacular,” David Moore, head of Astronomy Ireland, told the Irish Examiner earlier this week.

“Shooting stars are very rare and most people accidentally see one once every few years. If they go out for five to 10 minutes on that particular night they could see more than an astronomer sees in a lifetime. It is a very big event cosmically.”

Experts expect to see up to 1,000 meteors an hour from the Camelopardalids shower, which has never been seen before.

Mr Moore says the shower could develop into something amazing. "There is a decent chance it could be a storm. You definitely want to be outside watching. If it does happen you are in for the celestial fireworks display of a lifetime.”

Met Eireann is predicting mixed weather across the country tonight, with outbreaks of rain spreading westwardsbut further dry spells in the west and northwest. However, parts of east Leinster may experience some heavy rain at times overnight.

Mostly dry with sunny spells today. However rain developing in east will move slowly westwards this eve. Breezy & cool; highs 11 to 15 deg — Met Éireann (@MetEireann) May 23, 2014

Those in North America will see most of the action tonight but Mr Moore reckons we might be treated to a decent spectacle here in Ireland.

“It currently favours north America but we are the last country to North America. We could catch the whole event,” he said.

“People should get outside on the night of the 23rd and the morning of the 24th from dusk till dawn if you can stay up that long.”

He said Astronomy Ireland will be urging people to count the shooting stars.

“We will be asking people around Ireland to count every one they see every 15 minutes and email the results in to us for a survey we will be doing.

To log the shooting stars, go to astronomy.ie

Let us know what you see tonight by posting to our Facebook and Twitter pages.

Don't worry is the clouds hide the skies. Thanks to Virtual Telescope you can still watch live online if the weather restricts your view.