2019 NORAD & Google Santa Tracker - Timelapse

Note: For the best viewing experience, set the video resolution to the highest your device can support. Viewing the timelapse in 360p or lower will result in a poor viewing experience.

Here it is! The fixed timelapse of the NORAD & Google Santa Trackers during the 2019 live stream. This timelapse starts at 2 AM EST on 12/24 so it includes NORAD pre-tracking.

This video is a re-upload of the original one. Due to the fact that NORAD had to run in 3D mode, the snowflakes caused compression artifacts in the original video. This timelapse is encoded at 60 fps (although it runs at 30 fps) so that there's more bitrate, and less compression artifacts.

The entire timelapse was constructed with about 20,000 photos, weighing in at about 32 GB. I used mencoder to construct an uncompressed version of the timelapse at 30 fps (weighing in at about 30 GB), converted it to a CineForm codec so my editing software could recognize it, then added the music on top of it. I then re-encoded the first export at 60 FPS for more bitrate on YouTube.

Music: An der schönen blauen Donau, Op. 314 by Johann Strauss II (if you watched 2001: A Space Odyssey, it's the music during the docking scene).