Earth from Orbit – video
If you point your browser to The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth, you will find a complete collecton of images of Earth taken by astronauts in space. James Drake is a science educator with a good eye for spectacular scientific imagery, and has made good use of that site. He has stitched together 600 photographs of Earth taken from the International Space Station to create the timelapse video on the left. The camera is set up for night-time photography, which is why both the stars, the upper layer of the Earth’s atmosphere and the intense light pollution of cities below are visible, and why the sequence ends with a dazzling sunrise completely washing out the camera. The video takes us on a short journey starting in the Pacific ocean off the coast of Canada, over both North and South America, and ends at daybreak as we reach the shores of Antarctica.