Stunning Time Lapse of the Earth From the ISS 180
The Bad Astronomer writes "Science educator James Drake took 600 still photos from the International Space Station as it orbited the Earth, and created a fantastic time-lapse animation out of them. It must be seen to be appreciated; storms and cities fly past below in amazing clarity."
Re:Light pollution (Score:2, Informative)
There are many places even in the USA where the night is pitch black and you can see the Milky Way with zero light pollution. It's much easier to go the NE New Mexico than into orbit.
Re:Direction (Score:5, Informative)
This is awesome! I'm trying to figure out what part of the earth this is imaging. My best guess is going from the north to south pole along the western side of the Americas, starting somewhere near Vancouver/Seattle passing Mexico, down along Chile, and ending as it gets to Antarctica. Can anyone confirm this?
The description on YouTube [youtube.com] says:
A time-lapse taken from the front of the International Space Station as it orbits our planet at night. This movie begins over the Pacific Ocean and continues over North and South America before entering daylight near Antarctica. Visible cities, countries and landmarks include (in order) Vancouver Island, Victoria, Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, San Fransisco, Los Angeles. Phoenix. Multiple cities in Texas, New Mexico and Mexico. Mexico City, the Gulf of Mexico, the Yucatan Peninsula, Lightning in the Pacific Ocean, Guatemala, Panama, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, and the Amazon. Also visible is the earths ionosphere (thin yellow line) and the stars of our galaxy.
Re:Direction (Score:5, Informative)
This page [nasa.gov] shows the orbit of the ISS. I believe what we're seeing is:
0:00 - Seattle / Vancouver as a dot on the horizon at left.
0:05 - Left to right: Seattle, Portland, San Francisco.
0:12 - ISS passes over land slightly north of San Francisco, moving toward Las Vegas; Los Angeles and San Diego on the right.
0:16 - ISS passes almost directly over Las Vegas (bottom center).
0:18 - ISS passes almost directly over Phoenix. Gulf of California on the right; Dallas and Houston on the horizon at far left.
0:28 - Mexico City. Gulf of Mexico on the left, Pacific Ocean on the right.
0:34 - Central American coast flyby, complete with tropical storms.
0:43 - South American coast flyby: Colombia, then Ecuador, then Peru.
0:51 - Lima, Peru.
0:55 - Border between Peru and Chile. The station's orbit begins to curve inland (eastward).
0:58 - Valparaiso and Santiago on the horizon at right (behind the solar panels after 0:59).
0:59 - Buenos Aires, Argentina is just appearing on the horizon (top center) as the video ends.
So I don't think Antarctica is ever visible - the station's orbit starts to turn eastward before that happens.
Re:the video was spectacular (Score:5, Informative)
According to Wikipedia [wikipedia.org] there are 44 +/- 5 lightning bolts per second on the Earth.
Re:the video was spectacular (Score:4, Informative)