This short post, part of our CS4FN Christmas Computing Advent Calendar, is to let you know that you may be able to watch Santa’s sleigh as it goes overhead on Christmas Day (or Christmas Eve). It doesn’t matter if you believe in Father Christmas or not, whether you’ll actually see his sleigh really only depends on how cloudy it is! In fact Santa’s sleigh follows the orbit of the International Space Station (ISS) remarkably closely…
In the unlikely event that any small children are awake unusually early on Christmas Day and it’s not cloudy then you might be able to catch a bright light passing overhead at around 05:54 in the morning as Father Christmas zips around the world delivering presents at incredible speeds.
The timings below are for London, UK but you can enter your own city and see if Father Christmas will be passing near you, and when.
| Day | Date | Time | Visible | Max Height | Appears | Disappears |
| Sun | 24 Dec | 6:40 am | 6 min | 86° | 21° above W | 10° above E |
| Mon | 25 Dec | 5:54 am | 4 min | 88° | 82° above WSW | 10° above E |
See ‘How to spot the station‘ and find out what ‘max height’ and ‘appears’ means in context. You can also use NASA’s Spot The Station app for phones.
Other ways to track Santa – NORAD, FlightRadar24 and Google’s Santa Tracker.
EPSRC supports this blog through research grant EP/W033615/1.
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