Embed CodePlays: 1101 (Embed: 0)

The video was taken by astronauts and edited by Michael König, was from a
high-resolution camera with low-light abilities, so it can see faint
sources of light. The footage was all taken from August to October 2011.

Amazing how cities streaming by underneath; the
instantly recognizable outlines of familiar places like the Great Lakes
or the boot of Italy; the incredible flickering thunderstorms — giving
you an understanding that there are always thousands of such storms all
over the planet at any one time; the incredible 3D view of the
green and red aurorae which you can actually see as towering structures
dozens or even hundreds kilometers in height; the stars rising and
setting and spinning over the horizon; the reflection of the Moon on the
Earth below following along our point of view at 2:50 into the footage;
or the thin glowing arc above the horizon: airglow, caused by molecules in the upper atmosphere slowly emitting light as they release energy accumulated during the day.
It’s all fantastic.


There have been plenty of beautiful time lapse videos of the Earth from the ISS — most notably, one from September — but this sets a new standard. Not the least of which because it’s so smooth; the sense of motion, the sense of flying, is overpowering. But the sheer magnificence of the entire video is simply incredible.

View comments (7)