Short answer: a lot. Long answer: a real lot… if you include the stars inside the Andromeda galaxy, which is also very visible from space as this recent time-lapse from the ISS shows!
Tag: orbit
A Daily Dose of Dawn
Here’s a gorgeous view from the International Space Station, taken by the Expedition 30 crew on Feb. 4, 2012 as the station passed into orbital dawn. The greens and reds of the aurora borealis shimmer above Earth’s limb beyond the Station’s solar panels as city lights shine beneath a layer of clouds. Read the rest…
“Zero G and I feel fine… Man, the view is tremendous!”
Those were the words enthusiastically said by astronaut John Glenn as he became the first American to orbit the Earth on Feb. 20, 1962. The photo above was taken by Glenn through the window of the Friendship 7 spacecraft, in which he completed three orbits before splashing down in the Atlantic. Much has changed in…
The Town That Billy Sunday Couldn’t Shut Down
Here’s a view from the ISS, looking down at the brightly-lit Chicago metropolitan area on February 2, 2012. Lake Michigan is the dark expanse seen below the clouds — perhaps a dense fog bank — at bottom center. According to NASA, fog is not common in the Great Lakes area this time of the year…
Moonset Over The Atlantic
Awesomeness. No words necessary. Via the Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. Video courtesy of the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center.
A View From The Top
From the top of the atmosphere, that is! This gorgeous photo, taken from the Space Station on November 24, 2011, looks over our planet’s limb just after orbital sunset. We get a good look at cloud structures, the thin shell of our atmosphere (it’s always surprising how thin it really is), airglow, stars, and what…
Happy New Year from the ISS!
2011 has given us many amazing images and videos of our planet from the International Space Station, which received its last US-built components this year during the STS-133 and 134 shuttle missions. The Expedition 30 crew now aboard the ISS will ring in 2012 from orbit, and they have recorded the video above to wish…
The Tail of a Comet Amongst the Stars
Nearly a week after its last photo event, here’s a shot of Comet Lovejoy seen from the Space Station on December 27. On its way back out into the solar system after its close run-in with the Sun on December 15, Lovejoy has since sprouted a beautiful gauzy new tail which now precedes it along…
A Beautiful Comet-rise at Dawn (VIDEO)
The video above contains a time-lapse movie of Earth’s horizon at dawn on December 21, showing lightning storms, stars, airglow… and the sungrazing comet Lovejoy rising above the atmosphere! (And I must say its new tail looks amazing!)
The Journey Home
A beautiful and mesmerizing series of time-lapse videos taken by astronaut Ron Garan during his last weeks aboard the International Space Station, this must-see montage is made all the sweeter by a score from Peter Gabriel and an intro from Ron himself. Ron wrote in his blog entry on FragileOasis.org: Although the International Space Station…
ISS Docking Success!
Tonight at 11:24pm CST a TMA-22 Soyuz vehicle containing the three members of Expedition 29/30 crew successfully docked with the ISS, 248 miles above the south Pacific. It was the first docking of a manned vehicle to the ISS since the end of the shuttle program.
Earth From Orbit – in HD!
Watch this! Videographer Michael König assembled several time-lapse videos taken from the crew aboard the ISS into one long continuous video, and cleaned up the footage and added music as well. Really beautiful work on an already stunning series of videos! Needless to say this has gone the rounds on the ‘net today.
Lights in the Dark 