Milky way from earth orbit

[ecaps]

I saw this great picture on reddit today,

http://i.imgur.com/6VfIp.jpg

which literally gave me chills. But when I checked the comments

http://www.reddit.com/r/space/comments/ ... t_on_till/

they were full of pooh-poohing because it's photoshopped. What does the milky way actually look like from orbit? Does a more legitimate similar shot exist?

[BMAONE23]

Unfortunately (and on the night side in orbit) the sky view is not much different that it is from earth in a dark location at night. From the daylight side the Earthshine would detract from the darkness of the sky and affect the total visible star count, much like images captured of the ISS that have the darkness of space in the background and a well lit Earth below don't seem to show many (any) stars (though there are some there if you look hard enough). What you loose from Space that you have from the ground is the atmospheric effects, the "Twinkle" of the little stars. But other than that, it isn't much different to the naked eye.

[orin stepanek]

http://i.imgur.com/6VfIp.jpg
Photo shopped or not; it is beautiful!

[geckzilla]

There are some and videos too but a photo of such a phenomenon will never look the same to your eyes as it does to a camera. Our eyes aren't very light sensitive.