Wake up early and look up tomorrow: The annual Leonid meteor shower is expected to peak in the hours just before dawn Wednesday and Thursday.

The Leonids come every year in November, when the Earth passes through a cloud of debris trailing the comet Tempel-Tuttle. When the dust Tempel-Tuttle leaves behind smacks into Earth's atmosphere, the specks vaporize and blaze across the sky.

It's hard to predict how intense each shower will be, but astronomers expect this year's Leonids to produce at least 20 meteors an hour. The full moon will set several hours before dawn, so its glare won't interfere with the show.

The Leonids get their name because they appear to fly from the constellation Leo, a backwards-question-mark–shaped collection of stars in the eastern sky.

To check when the best viewing times are in your area, check out this flux calculator applet developed by two meteor hunters at the SETI Institute.

If you want to photograph the meteor shower, head away from city lights and check out our how-to wiki on where to look and how to take photos. Send us your best shots – if we get enough good ones, we'll compile them into a gallery.

Image: Flickr/Dominic's pics

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