APOD: Flying Over the Earth at Night (2012 Mar 05)

[Ireland]

BEAUTIFUL

[alphachapmtl]

Am I right?
At first we see America's west coast going from north to south:
Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Baja California, etc...

http://i43.tinypic.com/2a660w6.png

(why does this image appear so small?, the source is bigger.)

[emike12]

video is nice but I don't like the blurred switching between scenes, that is not scientific, should just go straight to next scene in 1 frame; I think it starts somewhere over starfleet hq in San Francisco, going south over Mexico and South America

I love this video, but I had the same thougt while watching it. The video is so spectacular it does not need any graphic enhancements. Also, I did get frustrated when I would be watching something only to have the scene shift - maybe this makes me a nerd but each scene could have been much longer and I would have been just as mesmerized. It is treats like this that keep this my favorite web site of the millions to choose from. Thanks NASA!

[Wing Nut]

The auroras are fabulous but I really think the lightning is cool. Two weeks ago I read a quote from John Glenn after his famous trip into space 50 years ago and he commented, "Just off the east coast of Africa were two large storm areas. Weather Bureau scientists had wondered whether lightning could be seen on the night side, and it certainly can...Lightning could be seen flashing back and forth between the clouds, but most prominent were lightning flashes within thunderheads, illuminating them like light bulbs." It's astonishing how little we knew about our home planet back then and how much we've learned with the help of courageous men and women like him and the dedicated teams at organisations like NASA, ESA, JAXA and ESO to name only a very few.

[erosandze]

Does anyone know why most of the city lights on the left side of the video at about 0:27 - 0:30 are green??

I don't think anyone else has figured out where those images are. At 0:56 the left side is Mongolia the right where most of the lights are is China at 1:00 near the horizon is South Korea. You can see the lights of the DMZ. The glowing green lights off the diamond shaped bay (Shanghai) at 1:03 in the East China Sea, are out in the water and most likely are fishing fleets.

[Pete]

The aurora starting at 1:21 looks strikingly similar to 0:43 in this November 21 APOD - solar panel, cloud cover and all: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap111121.html

The music is fitting (having been used in a Star Trek trailer!) and instantly reminded me of Michael McCann's more recent work in Deus Ex: Human Revolution. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=402asYLG_b0

[John P S]

Today's APOD is one of the best!!! I'm not especially religious, but seeing 'Mother Earth' like this was a moving experience. Also our many complex human accomplishments to enable us to see the video is impressive.

APOD is a great way to start my day. Many thanks!!!

[Tom B]

I think all the sequences are going from north to south and slightly eastward.

It looks to me like the first sequence starts on the west coast of the US and passes over Baja California (visible on the right), Central and South America. The sequence starting at 0:48 starts in the central US, then goes over Florida and Cuba. The sequence starting at 1:05 starts over Great Britain, goes over Western Europe, Italy, Turkey and the middle east. Not sure about the others. I would like to know. Someone must know for sure.

[Beyond]

And I hope people will continue to post their landscape identifications, as I couldn't pick out anything and need the help!!

Hmm... Looks like all the little critters are safe from the Mighty Hungry Raptors Talons, 'this day'

[Jack Johnson]

Dandy Stuff! Such visualization makes my heart soar like an eagle! I have to chuckle at the chaps who seemed to have negative comments for all of this free wonder... Spoiled little nips, they are!

[lange wapper]

Here in Belgium I saw only the State of Florida. Greetings !

[Wolf kotenberg]

WOW, I need to troT over an irish pub and watch this again. Perhaps the wobble will stop. or not !

[ddorn777]

Goosebumps. Wow!

[RGDONALD]

Of ten years in looking at APOD, this is the coolest posting. Amazing.

[stargazingcurtis05]

Wow! That is amazing! It really makes you appreciate that not only do we live on a beautiful and fragile planet but also how increadible it is that mankind has got to the stage that we can show to the world just how extraordinary the whole thing is! I can't wait for the kids to wake up so can show them all!! (not often I wish for an early start!)
Thanks so much,...I think I'll jsut watch it again!

[PacRim Jim]

You should mention that this is a time-lapse video, to avoid giving the wrong impression about orbital flight.

0:22 Baja California
o:46 Chile
0:52 Florida
1:11 Italy
1:19 Nile River

[borc]

Also, I did get frustrated when I would be watching something only to have the scene shift - maybe this makes me a nerd but each scene could have been much longer and I would have been just as mesmerized.

every time the scene shifted it was about 3 frames prior to the sun coming into the picture. the bright flash JUST before it cuts is the moment of sunrise.
It rises first a 0:48 then again at 56 1:04 Etc

Since the sunrise happens every 90 minutes~ on the ISS in order to have geographic continuity without having the video span several days of real life time from the first scene to the last scene they had to cut it together like that. Notice how the first chunk of flight is 48 seconds long, then about 10-15 second segments after that? That's because the first segment started at sunset and ended at sunrise, the next segments could only be a few seconds long without requiring the video to span a year( i think, if not a year it would be MUCH longer at least) of real life time to capture, which would be silly. I iked the music. It was composed by a movie trailer group that does music for bunches of movies/games

[saturn2]

This video is beautiful.
The I S S is moving at 7.7km/s
I think it¨s very fast for a space station

[algar61]

Nice to see the Southern Cross and Alpha and Beta Centauri rising above the southern horizon at 0:45 into the film. There is also an unidentified satellite orbiting toward Crux in the same frames.

[waguy]

AWESOME. Can't wait for the day when they have a 24-hour almost-live feed from the ISS - I'd probably want a full-time HD screen dedicated just to that!

[paultimothy]

That was awesome! I thought that i was India, but it was Denmark. This was awesome! How high is it, and is the speed that it was going the true speed? I definitely saw Italy, Greece and Spain, off in a corner. I think that it would be cool to get more of a sunrise, though. I could just watch the earth spin below at a dizzying speed for hours! I loved it!

[dan]

Check out 46 seconds ... could that be a UFO flying through space?

I saw Italy and Spain

[oxrodox]

Holy Moly! That was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen! Brought tears to my eyes and took me to a moment I have never had before! -rgbc

[solserenade]

All I could think of watching this video was how horrible the light pollution was over practically every land mass the ISS passed over. Soon the only way anyone will be able to see the night sky at all will be to go into space themselves!

Depressing, depressing, depressing!

Yep that's what I see too ........

[DavidLeodis]

The video compilation is credited to Bitmeizer. However, clicking on that link brings up a 'David's Random Video Collection' that has links to many types of videos that seemed to have been selected by a David Peterson but which have been noted as favourites by Bitmeizer. Assuming that Bitmeizer is not David Peterson (which seems likely in view of the favourites notings) then if the video was compiled by Bitmeizer why was Bitmeizer not a link to information on him or her?