Finally, Hi-Def Streaming Video of the ISS's View of Earth 97
An anonymous reader writes with a snippet from ExtremeTech: "After being continuously inhabited for more than 13 years, it is finally possible to log into Ustream and watch the Earth spinning on its axis in glorious HD. This video feed [embedded at ExtremeTech] comes from from four high-definition cameras, delivered by last month's SpaceX CRS-3 resupply mission, that are attached to the outside of the International Space Station. You can open up the Ustream page at any time, and as long as it isn't night time aboard the ISS, you'll be treated to a beautiful view of the Earth from around 250 miles (400 km) up."
Seems to be actually working about 5% of the time. (Score:4, Interesting)
I think I have checked about 20 times with one success. And the quality was not great the one time it was working.
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I think it's just overwhelmed; I was able to get on the first time I tried, bu haven't been able to get the video since.
By HD (Score:5, Informative)
By HD they mean 480p, or atleast that's what the "ustream" maxes at
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At least the Cameras are actually 720p / 1080i, and connected via HD-SDI:
https://directory.eoportal.org/web/eoportal/satellite-missions/i/iss-opals-hdev
http://www.jencam.de/FCB-EH4300
http://www.toshibacameras.com/products/prod_detail_ikhr1s.jsp
http://www.hitachi-keu.com/test/broadcast/hdtv_box_pov_cameras/hv_hd30_e.htm
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I get much better resolution by simply looking down around my feet.
Useless (Score:4, Informative)
Just a grey square. So much for the hype.
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I think UStream just got "slashdotted" as we call it here... too many users, not enough bandwidth.
Re:Useless (Score:4, Funny)
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Just a grey square. So much for the hype.
Youngsters. Back in my day, all we could get was a grey dot, and we were happy to get that.
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A gray dot is just a round gray square.
Re:Useless (Score:4, Funny)
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Just a grey square. So much for the hype.
They can't help that. It's "space fog".
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well, I for one welcome our new 2d grey square overlords
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TFA mentions that this simply means that it is turned off at the moment, but doesn't say when it will be turned on. That vital information seems to be missing.
The only interesting info in TFA is that there are four cameras in a single enclosure, pointed in different directions. One made by Sony, one by Panasonic, one by Toshiba and one by Hitachi. They are off-the-shelf commercial grade cameras, much cheaper than dedicated space cameras. All Japanese, although TFA is at pains to point out that there was som
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... All Japanese, although TFA is at pains to point out that there was some seemingly minor American involvement too. Are there any major camera manufacturers left in the US?
Well, it is the International Space Station, not the American Space Station (though that would have a much better initialism.)
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That would also be an "uninhabited" space station at the moment if that were true.
Or you just link to the actual source ... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Or you just link to the actual source ... (Score:5, Informative)
Thanks! And here's a good link for the ISSs current position and track: http://iss.astroviewer.net/ [astroviewer.net]
Re:Or you just link to the actual source ... (Score:4, Informative)
Official NASA site [nasa.gov] - has video as well as current position.
Grey for me right now, which presumably means the ISS is out of signal. Perhaps better in 15 mins when it passes over Japan..
HD? (Score:2, Funny)
By HD, they mean looking at nothing but grey?
Re:HD? (Score:5, Funny)
But it's a very highly defined grey. Look at that fidelity.
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eh, it looks like fake grey, to me. I can tell by the pixels.
gray image (Score:1)
ISS over China at the moment or perhaps crossing the UK.
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also explanation
"During periods of loss of signal with the ground or when HDEV is not operating, a gray color slate or previously recorded video may be seen. "
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On a more realistic note, are there any military or espionage concerns that would motivate censorship of a feed like this? Assuming that's even possible, being the International Space Station after all.
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Nah. The resolution coupled with the extreme distance from the earths surface will not reveal anything of importance.
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I agree that the resolution is not exceptional. But the distance is not extreme: the ISS is only in LEO. Actually, it's the availability of real-time streaming that I assumed would cause the greatest concern, if there is any.
I posed the question because I am aware of other situations where cameras in earth-orbit (pointing towards or away from the Earth) have raised concerns from government agencies.
Lol, wut? 13 years?? (Score:1)
After being continuously inhabited for more than 13 years, it is finally possible to log into Ustream and watch the Earth spinning on its axis in glorious HD.
C'mon, that sentence is red meat for grammar Nazis.
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Grammar Nazis should be fine with that sentence, as it is 100% correct - a few billion is definitely more than 13.
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It takes a certain kind of retard to confuse the ISS with the Earth.
The sentence is also grammatically correct.
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It takes a certain kind of retard to confuse the ISS with the Earth.
The sentence is also grammatically correct.
Of course, I know the context implies that it's the ISS that has been inhabited for 13 years, not the Earth. But that means the ISS should be in the sentence as a noun. It is not. Therefore, grammatical error. A doozie.
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I thought we weren't allowed to use that word anymore out of the fear it would offend the retards?
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Offending retards is one of the primary functions of the internet.
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It is grammatically correct, yes, and says that the Earth has been inhabited for more than 13 years.
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No, it says something inferred from the context of the paragraph has been inhabited for more than 13 years and the Earth can be observed spinning from it.
Going by your grammar rules, the sentence you just typed says the Earth is grammatically correct.
Or is the subject of the verb inferred?
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I did not write a sentence in the same form as the one referred to. Don't be ridiculous.
Not only red meat... (Score:1)
...but the oh-so-fun to say - and best grammar-based double-entendre going - it's a dangling participle.
NASA TV (Score:1)
NASA TV has had something similar for a long time. They have internal views with the IIS crew us on-duty and earth-views when the crew is off-duty.
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/
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Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
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Communications have been disrupted? That can only mean one thing!
Sebastian Anthony (Score:2)
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Doesn't it speed up the motion? I thought the ISS moved east to west relative to the surface of the earth. The earth's surface moves west to east as it spins.
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Sorry but yes. The Earth is always spinning on its axis, so whenever and however you see it, that is what it's doing.
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Expectations of today (Score:1)
I laughed at myself when I realized how meh I was when the video was just grey. "I came here to see live video of Earth from space, can you guys get this working, gah! I'm here now, giving you my precious 10 seconds of attention."
After thinking for a second, I give them some slack. I think we might be getting a little blazé at the technical wonders of today. This live feed "doesn't just happen".
HD? (Score:2)
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Cameras (Score:2)
I could provide a content free stream at a lot higher resolution than this from my webcam.
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so out of all the shit that needs fixed on earth, your proposal is to spend billions of dollars to see how long it takes for moondust to get on a sliver of glass
fuck you
Yes, actually. This is what I want to spend my money on.
We've spent trillions, on trying to fix shit that ain't ever going to get fixed, and I'd like to take a break and look at something pretty for a while.
Some money spent here:
http://www.oecd.org/dac/stats/... [oecd.org]
But, just to put things into perspective, look at what we're really spending money on:
http://mentalfloss.com/article... [mentalfloss.com].
You think that we can't spend part of our cigarette budget on something else.
They really need a Ku-band schedule.. (Score:1)
Given the bandwidth the video must be coming down through TDRS via Ku band. It would be really nice if they just posted a count-down to the next Ku pass so people would know when that wonderfully not useful grey block was going to turn into a real live video feed.
Live desktop wallpaper (Score:2)
Now in HD! (Score:2)
why? (Score:2)
That's great, but.. (Score:2)
extremetech is the kind of website that requires you to allow such an enormous crapload of all-interconnected javascript, that re-iterates every time you 'temporarily allow all this page', that I can't watch it.
Add "flash required" as a tag (Score:2)
scientists' personal interests (Score:2)
This stream video link does not work as expected. And will not work.
Holy crap, look at all those scripts (Score:2)
How can it be necessary to run scripts from so many sites? And if you allow the ones on extremetech to run, it runs even more third-party scripts. Short of serving up obvious malware, this is about as hostile and risky as a webpage gets.
exa.ec (Score:1)
NEE-01 PEGASO http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N... [wikipedia.org] live streamed 720p video early May 2013 through EarthCam http://www.earthcam.com/world/... [earthcam.com]
UrtheCast? (Score:2)