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Earth and Auroras: A Stunning Time-Lapse

Inspire

At the International Space Station, astronauts put together one of the most impressive videos of our planet seen from space.

Ever since that monumental image of Earth seen from the moon (like a blue marble) taken in 1972, we’ve produced an array of photographs of our planet as seen from space. These astronautical views are also spiritual in nature––Perhaps as seeing ourselves in an out-of-body experience, as one who can see his body while asleep.

The International Space Station’s continuous orbit around Earth, together with the development of digital photography, have rendered truly hypnotizing images; have captured the cosmos in all its beauty and splendor. The time-lapse technique, needless to say, is spectacular––in just a couple of minutes we can see an entire day on earth: the sun rising, the movement of city lights, and, in this case, the auroras.

Of all the time-lapse sequences of Earth seen from space, this one has got to be among the most beautiful. Knate Myers captured these images from the ISS and optimized them with Photoshop to compose a masterful piece about the light that bounces off the planet’s surface. We see the blue aura of the earth, the swarming urban movement, like clouds of electronic lightning-bugs, and the blinding lurch of dawn.

The video is accompanied by John Murphy’s song, “Sunshine,” which lends dramatic flare to the images. This time-lapse series celebrates nature and the uses technology to forge a new relationship between art and science, between sky and earth.

 

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