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Forget Santa’s sleigh. This Christmas, the flying object to look out for is the International Space Station, which will be soaring over London on Christmas morning. Don’t space out on this one.
If you’re not too hungover from the Christmas Eve drinks, set your alarms for 7.22 am on Christmas morning, as that’s when you’ll be able to spot the space station in the sky. It will appear as a single, quickly moving, bright star. The flypast will only last for a couple of minutes, so try not to miss it.
Standing in an open area with a good view of the sky – like a park – will give you the best chance of seeing the space station. Avoiding places with street lighting will help too. Don’t forget your compass (every serious stargazer should have one), as you’ll need to look west in the sky.
The space station is visible at this time of the morning because the rising sun is still low enough to leave the sky in near darkness, but the space station is high enough to be already reflecting the sunlight, making it light up like a star.
If you want to know more, you can check out all the flypast data on N2YO.
Science rules!
Here are more festive things to do in London on Christmas day.
Listen to Time Out’s brilliant podcast ‘Love Thy Neighbourhood’: the Christmas special with Paloma Faith in the East End is out now.
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