Meteor shower: Poor luck hampers viewers of Camelopardalids

Look up! A once-in-a-lifetime meteor shower, dubbed the May Camelopardalids (Camel-Oh-par-dalids), could light up the night sky late Friday or early Saturday morning.

From midnight to dawn Saturday morning, Earth might pass through a debris field left by a comet hundreds of years ago called 209P/LINEAR. The result could be a spectacular light show visible across North America with as many as 200 meteors falling toward Earth per hour.

If you live in the Los Angeles area and want to watch the meteor shower, you can watch this video stream or this one.

Cloud cover may block stargazers who want to watch it live from their backyards. Experts said heading away from city lights and low clouds -- perhaps to mountain areas or deserts like Joshua Tree-- will provide the best views in the region.

The meteors are northern, meaning the U.S. and Canada will be best positioned to view them, scientists said. However, astronomers are unsure of how much dust has been left by the 209P/LINEAR comet. The cloud of comet dust may turn out to be too small, or too sparse, to put on a show.