Starship Asterisk*

The network of cities at night remind me of the [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large-scale_structure_of_the_cosmos#Largest_structures_in_the_universe]large scale structure of the universe[/url], which in turn reminds me of the network of neurons and dendrites within every living creature.

[url=http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap071211.html]APOD: 2007 December 11 - The Universe Nearby[/url]

There are two other airports that can be seen in this photo... Luton airport is at 11oclock.. and Stansted airport is at 1oclock.
you can also see the M1 motorway the M40 motorway and the M4 motorway. Some of the M25 motorway has no street lights so its hard to make out.. but it does go all the way around. They must of got lucky and took this photo in, the one day per year its not raining...

Mark

[quote="orin stepanek"]Hi Art; If I remember right; Neil Armstrong had to Jerry Rig a switch to get home from Luna. :roll: Seems we have to make do once in a while. Did you like the movie though?[/quote]
Absolutely, thanks.
I just wish they had a semi automatic camera (preferably IMAX) on the outside of ISS.

[quote="neufer"]Why in God's name do they have to jerrybuilt a camera to take night time photos?[/quote]
Because taking pictures of the Earth at night out a window with a DSLR isn't part of their mission specs. There's really nothing already in place that could do this, and if NASA had contracted out the design it would have been millions of dollars. Nice that there is some room for individual creativity on the part of the astronauts, if you ask me.

Hi Art; If I remember right; Neil Armstrong had to Jerry Rig a switch to get home from Luna. :roll: Seems we have to make do once in a while. Did you like the movie though?

Orin

[quote="orin stepanek"]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6008263716316160675

NASA video of cities at night; Nice tour. 8) [/quote]
Why in God's name do they have to jerrybuilt a camera to take night time photos? :roll:
(Even US Navy Seals have motion compensating night time scopes.)

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6008263716316160675

NASA video of cities at night; Nice tour. 8)

Orin

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap030411.html

Sometimes looking at past APODs I find one that is interesting to me. The night view of London did that. It was intriguing that the view from space showed London to be quite symmetrical. I am adding this one to my collection of backgrounds. 8)

Orin