Flying over planet Earth:

[Xithras]

This is a cool vid compiled from ISS images during a recent pass. The video passes down the west coast of the U.S., Mexico, South America, and finally ends just before reaching Antarctica. Turn the rate up to the highest your connection will support, and full-screen it for the best effect. It almost makes me want to be an astronaut again!

http://youtu.be/74mhQyuyELQ

For the curious:

0:00 Video starts over te Gulf of Alaska.
0:06 Bright dot at very left edge is Vancouver. Seattle is just to its right. Portland to the right of that.
0:12 The "circle" on the right side is the SF Bay Area. The bright blotch to its left is Sacramento. The dots between and above them are the various towns in the Central Valley. The "star" in the center is Reno Nevada, and along the left you can see Salt Lake City. The dim light beyond that is Denver.
0:16 The giant splotch on the right is Los Angeles. The smaller blight spot to the left is Las Vegas. The larger one directly above that is Phoenix.
0:19 Sitting right over Phoenix. Way off along the left edge, the big bright spot is Dallas.Above that are Houston, Nuevo Laredo, and other cities.
0:27 Mexico City and its suburbs. You can see the Gulf of Mexico on the left, and the Yucatan looming ahead.
0:36 I believe that's Panama City off in the distance at the left.
0:43 Those are the coasts of Columbia and Ecuador. You can see Quito, Guyaquil, Cali, and everything in between.
0:46 The boast of Peru, into Bolivia. That dark expanse on the left isn't water, but is the relatively unpopulated Amazon basin.
0:51 Lima, Peru
0:55 Lake Titicaca. La Paz is just above it, and Santa Cruz above that. The big blotch to the right of the lake is Arequipa Peru.
1:00 The dot in the center is Cordoba Argentina. The double dot near the top edge (nearly lost in the rising sun) is Buenos Aires.
1:02 The sun rising over the South Atlantic.


This video has been floating around a couple of days, but this is a new version that has been reworked to get rid of the "stutters". This was originally assembled from a series of time-lapse photos shot on the space station, but this version was smoothed out to provide more of a "video" feel.

On Update: Updated link and re-timed because I used the wrong copy. This one is better quality :dunce:

[Odin2005]

1. Wow, you can see the lightening from storms!

[Xithras]

3. Yeah, I'm not sure if that's one TS, or multiple storms though.

Either way, it's very cool to watch the storms from above :)

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. Thanks! Bookmarking for the kids!