This thing is just stunning. One of the unsung benefits of digital SLR cameras–and the almost limitless storage space and ease of processing digital offers–is a resurgence of time-lapse photography. This one was taken from the Space Station. It really gives you a sense of what it looks like out one of the portal windows (I imagine)…and watching the earth spinning by underneath. Note how little of earth you can see…the Space Station, in Low Earth Orbit, is not all that high.

I don’t think they can see the whole disk of the earth in one eyeful. Also notice how many lights there on the ground…no wonder two researchers at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics have published a paper arguing that large telescopes might even be able to “see” the light from alien cities on extrasolar planets. Which means maybe someone is looking at us…