http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=430ykbW1zqA

This video is out of this world!

Taken from the International Space Station, and shows city lights, northern lights and even lightning!

I really enjoyed that! Amazing footage - thanks for sharing

Thanks for that..

Amazing and stunning footage.

Very cool, though I would really like to know what kind of lens was used. The curvature of the Earth is quite exaggerated in that video.

asturias

Wow!!! Brilliant views of our beautiful planet Earth!!!! Thanks for sharing, also I was having a look at a few images of the ISS and that on the NASA website yesterday. The 3 who launched on sunday to go to the ISS, have to experience these views everyday until next March! Lucky them!!!

Haha and all the comments make me laugh on the video. A few people who say its fake, or the green stuff isn't real... They obviously still think the world is flat and have never seen an Aurora.  

[Edited 2011-11-15 10:02:18]

[Edited 2011-11-15 10:05:09]

Very stunning footage, and I'm happy to see it circulating so rapidly on the internet.

Quoting Asturias (Reply 3): Very cool, though I would really like to know what kind of lens was used. The curvature of the Earth is quite exaggerated in that video.

I imagine this was taken with something near 35mm, depending upon the camera, around what the human eye sees.
Remember the ISS usually orbits the Earth between 300 to 400km above the surface, so the curvature is very pronounced. In fact, the curvature us said to faintly be able to be observed starting around 50,000ft or 15km, and by 30km, the observer should definitely see distinguishable curvature. This is not a fisheye lense effect, by any means. You are observing the natural curvature of the Earth and its thin atmosphere which looks much thicker because of the low light and Aurora, but air glow hugs the Earth much more thinly. This truly gives you nice view of how small the Earth appears, even from low Earth orbit, in the cosmos, and how harmoniously our Earth's natural environment exists. Many of the most fundamental concepts of understanding harmony on Earth can be observed from this perspective and understood through meteorological knowledge.

You get a nice view of YYC around 0:32.

Quoting ElpinDAB (Reply 5): air glow hugs the Earth

okay, 3:08-3:15 shows daytime at the horizon, with accurate air glow. This is how thin the atmosphere is! This extremely thin veil of life-giving air envelopes the Earth. Aircraft fly through the very bottom-most portion of this tiny veil around Earth. The majority of the weather you experience also happens at the bottom-most reaches of this glow, as a result of the heating of the surface of the planet because of our star's radiation. Satellites are far above this...

[Edited 2011-11-15 21:34:16]

great video although the music was really creepy

Quoting runner13 (Reply 8): great video although the music was really creepy

Yea, this wasn't a good musical choice at all. I wouldn't say it was creepy, but just annoying that somebody would place such meaningless noise with a video that should be great.

Mute it, put on your music of choice, press play, and watch...the author of the videos didn't choose the song that somebody else published the video with.

Better?


So why is this topic of this video so taboo?

1.24 and 3.10 MEXICO wooooohoooo. Great to see how illuminated is Mexico City

I'd really like to know what camera was used to take that footage. I know that NASA has used both the Nikon D3s and D3x aboard the ISS and they have Nikkor 14-24 lenses too.

I've watched the video a few times...still as amazing as the first time I saw it. But now I've been trying to test my geography skills and identify where the Space Station is hovering over. Of course, at around 3:02-3:04 I can see Puerto Rico (in what has been dubbed The Light bulb of the Caribbean on account of how bright it is), and I can identify the Eastern Mediterranean a couple of times...

Stunning video! What a wonderful planet we live in!

Did anyone else see the Great Wall of China at 3:48, what a wonderful view!

Thanks for Sharing.

Quoting MD-90 (Reply 11): I'd really like to know what camera was used to take that footage. I know that NASA has used both the Nikon D3s and D3x aboard the ISS and they have Nikkor 14-24 lenses too.

According to DPReview it was a Nikon D3S with 17-35mm F2.8 and 14-24mm F2.8 lenses.

I like how around 1:45 or so you can see the ISS passing other satellites.

Quoting jetblue777 (Reply 13): Did anyone else see the Great Wall of China at 3:48, what a wonderful view!

That's what I thought at first, but something didn't look right. Then I saw that it matched the shape of the India/Pakistan border. A little research after that confirmed it:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...Pakistan-border-visible-space.html

---Skywatch

Quoting wolbo (Reply 14): According to DPReview it was a Nikon D3S with 17-35mm F2.8 and 14-24mm F2.8 lenses.

Ah ha!

Quoting wn700driver (Reply 15): I like how around 1:45 or so you can see the ISS passing other satellites.

Great observation. The Vimeo version, which is linked in the description of the YT version, is much higher quality, and you can see at least four different satellites pass by, opposite direction. Have you seen satellites from the flight deck?


For those of you pointing out locations....
The video description is partially labels each sequence. I have placed an approximate timeline for reference beside each one, and pointed out a few landmarks visible for the first 8.

1. Aurora Borealis Pass over the United States at Night :14-:23 over southern Rockies, then KC, STL, Chicago, DTW, YYZ, YOW, YUL

2. Aurora Borealis and eastern United States at Night :25-:43 Starts over Pac NW of US or Canada, with coud cover. Then, Winnipeg, MSP, over the gulf of Mexico for a shot of the midwest and northeast US, then ATL and the southeast without FL

3. Aurora Australis from Madagascar to southwest of Australia :43-:57

4. Aurora Australis south of Australia :58-1:11

5. Northwest coast of United States to Central South America at Night 1:11-1:38 Love this one...Enters the scene on a SSE-ward orbit, with YVR, SEA, and PDX initially in sight over on the west coast. Makes landfall
over the SFO Bay with LAX on the horizon, SAN comes into view, as the ISS passes over PHX and TUS under cloud cover just east of the Gulf of CA. Storms off the Pacific coast of Mexico, west of Guadalajara and Acapulco, and onto
central and south america. I can't quite determine the ground track after Mexico...

6. Aurora Australis from the Southern to the Northern Pacific Ocean 1:38-2:00

7. Halfway around the World 2:00-2:18

8. Night Pass over Central Africa and the Middle East 2:19-2:37 central Africa over the ITCZ, Nile River, the Med and Middle East, Black and Caspian Seas, Iran with Tehran visible, and eventually Siberia.

I'll allow all of you to fill in the blanks from here....

9. Evening Pass over the Sahara Desert and the Middle East 2:38-2:48

10. Pass over Canada and Central United States at Night 2:48-3:04

11. Pass over Southern California to Hudson Bay 3:04-3:16

12. Islands in the Philippine Sea at Night 3:17-3:30

13. Pass over Eastern Asia to Philippine Sea and Guam 3:31-3:44

14. Views of the Mideast at Night 3:45-3:54

15. Night Pass over Mediterranean Sea 3:55-4:01

16. Aurora Borealis and the United States at Night 4:02-4:17

17. Aurora Australis over Indian Ocean 4:18-4:30

18. Eastern Europe to Southeastern Asia at Night 4:31-end credits

Wow, this topic is once again forgotten. Did anybody identify some obscure (for me) geography? ISS's orbit is constantly changing, so it really is a challenge to point out geographical landmarks. Imagine you're one of 2 on board the ISS, waking up above Earth, anywhere, and shooting some pictures. So many places you could be above, and you've seen almost all of them. I'm really interested where some of these views were taken, and I have no clue. Keep in mind that the ISS has a curved, non-linear path over the surface, that is constantly changing.