APOD: A Live View from the ISS (2019 Jun 02)

[APOD Robot]

[img]https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/S_190602.jpg[/img] A Live View from the International Space Station

Explanation: If you were floating above the Earth right now, this is what you might see. In 2014, a robotic SpaceX Dragon capsule that delivered supplies to the Earth-orbiting International Space Station (ISS) also delivered High Definition Earth Viewing (HDEV) cameras that take and transmit live views of Earth. Pictured here, when working, is the live video feed that switches between four cameras, each pointed differently. Watch white clouds, tan land, and blue oceans drift by. The featured live view will appear black when it is nighttime on the Earth below, but the space station's rapid 90-minute orbit compresses this dark time into only 45 minutes. The present location of the ISS above the Earth can be found on the web. If the video appears gray, this indicates that the view is either being switched between cameras, or communications with the ISS is temporarily unavailable. As the HDEV project continues, video quality will be monitored to assess the effects of high energy radiation, which types of cameras work best, and which Earth views are the most popular.

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[orin stepanek]

Nice!

[cwguyfl]

Does anyone know what the arm is that runs vertically through the center of the video from one of the cameras?

[WC Amidon]

Not working......!

[Psnarf]

Maybe we could add a camera configured for night viewing. I'd like to see thunderstorms from above, maybe catch sprites, elves, and jets, so elusive and difficult to study.

[mostly cloudy]

This is completely mesmerizing, though I can't imagine why they switched from the forward camera to the "mast" or whatever that thing is, just as the narrow eastern terminator began to appear. Ah, well, the signal is gone again. Early days. Wonderful place to park a computer screen.

[Cousin Ricky]

My timing sucks. So far, every time I’ve checked, it’s been on the night side, except once, when it was sunset.

[Filboid]

Why is it we cannot see any city lights while on the night side?

[Chris Peterson]

Why is it we cannot see any city lights while on the night side?

Presumably because the system does not alter the exposure time and/or aperture of the cameras. They are fixed at whatever is necessarily to properly expose the daytime views, and that just doesn't allow for enough signal to show city lights.