International Space Station flyover: How to trick your kids into thinking they’ve seen Santa tonight
The International Space Station (ISS) has been in orbit for 16 years, but it seems this is the year parents have realised they can use it to play a devious trick on their kids: duping them into thinking it's Santa's sleigh.
Yep – with excellent timing, the ISS will appear several times over the UK today and tomorrow, and will appear, in some cases, "incredibly bright".
The station will make its first -and brightest – pass over the UK at 5.20pm. If you miss that, it'll pass over – fainter this time – at 6.58pm, And if you miss it, it'll pass over several times during Christmas Day. An excellent time to explain about timezones, perhaps…?
Check out http://t.co/Xea2jfWbQl for Christmas Eve #ISS pass times over the UK #ItsSantasSleigh pic.twitter.com/hGs1RIsWUv (Please RT)
— VirtualAstro (@VirtualAstro) December 21, 2014
Want to inject a bit of festive magic? Here are all the times Santa/the ISS will pass over the UK during the festive period. You can track its progress here.
| Date | Approximate brightness of the ISS | Start time | Direction of ISS' approach | Time ISS reaches its highest point | Where ISS will disappear | End time | Details |
| 24 December | Incredibly bright | 5.20pm | W | 5.24pm | SE | 5.27pm | Overhead pass – #ItsSantasSleigh |
| 24 December | Faint | 6.58pm | WSW | 6.59pm | SSW | 7pm | Very low short pass – #ItsSantasSleigh |
| 25 December | Very bright | 4.29pm | W | 4.33pm | ESE | 4.36pm | Overhead pass – merry Christmas astronauts |
| 25 December | Bright | 6.06pm | W | 6.09pm | ESE | 6.11pm | Low pass – merry Christmas |
| 25 December | Bright | 5.15pm | W | 5.18pm | SE | 5.21pm | Low pass – passes close to moon |
| 25 December | Bright | 5.10pm | W | 5.12pm | SE | 5.14pm | Very low pass – passes close to Mars |
Source: MeteorWatch