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ISS Marks 20 Years Orbiting Earth With Longest Timelapse Ever Made In Space (petapixel.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the time-to-celebrate dept.

AmiMoJo writes: The International Space Station has been in orbit for 20 years, with the first module Zarya (Russian for "dawn") being launched on the 20th of November in 1998. To celebrate, the European Space Agency (ESA) has released the longest timelapse video made in space to date. "Captured by German astronaut Alexander Gerst, the time-lapse takes you on two trips around the world with labels marking countries that pass through the frame," reports PetaPixel. "Traveling at 28,800 km/h (17896 mph), it takes the station just 90 minutes to orbit the Earth. 21,375 individual photos shot on October 6th went into the video, which is played back at 12.5 times faster than real time."

54 comments

  1. Pretty nice... by SuperKendall · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Great job on the video, and the music too...

    Just one quibble, from reading the headline I at first was thinking I would see a 20-year time-lapse of some part of Earth, that would be pretty amazing. Oh well! This was still a really excellent trip around the globe.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re: Pretty nice... by mermeid007 · · Score: 1

      Would there be the occasional advertisement?

    2. Re:Pretty nice... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      all CGI, check 1:34 and transition from no lights Russia to modern Asia, F$%% joke...there was a cut and some strange stitch, from total black to lights galore. Then stars straight from sky moving to the bloody earth...

    3. Re: Pretty nice... by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

      I'm not sure what you are getting at, but I didn't see any ads during the video...

      I mean, it's NASA, what would they even advertise?

      --
      "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    4. Re: Pretty nice... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Star trek?

    5. Re:Pretty nice... by BoogieChile · · Score: 1

      You can see 32 year timelapses like that here -> https://earthengine.google.com...

  2. Re:You people need to STOP BULLYING ME... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Goddam. Just stop this shit, OK???

  3. Spacewalk time by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

    Time for a spacewalk, and clean the lens.

    --
    When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    1. Re:Spacewalk time by jdharm · · Score: 1

      I thought this video would be cool to loop on my big screen TV at home, maybe as a screen saver, but that crud on the window made me nuts. I couldn't watch it. Just skipped through to see if it ever got cleaned. It did not.

  4. Darn, it didn’t fly over the US by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 2, Funny

    I wanted to see all the red and blue states...

    --
    #DeleteChrome
  5. Super cool by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

    What a great video. My niggles: 1) dirt on the lens. Surely with all our science? 2) Iris takes too long to open when crossing into night. I was surprised how fast the orbit precesses, had to look up how that works (it's because Earth isn't a sphere.) The lightning flashes over the Pacific are super cool.

    --
    When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    1. Re:Super cool by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      Hmm, make that dust on the sensor.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    2. Re:Super cool by hebcal · · Score: 2

      You're not seeing orbit precession in this video. The ground track "moves" from orbit to orbit primarily because the earth is spinning underneath a relatively stable orbit. It is true that the orbit is precessing, but it's happening much slower than you can see here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... notes that it's -3.7 degrees PER DAY. ...Whereas what is most obvious in this video is that the first orbit passes over Italy and the second over France, which is due to the -22.5 degree PER ORBIT spin of the earth below the ISS.

    3. Re:Super cool by dcw3 · · Score: 3, Informative

      No. The circumference of the earth at the equator is 24901 miles. From north to south pole, it's 24860. You're not going to notice a 41 mile difference in that video.

      --
      Just another day in Paradise
    4. Re:Super cool by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Iris takes too long to open when crossing into night.

      The Iris didn't close until the space station itself went into the Earth's shadow. Annoying, but understandable given all the stuff (solar panels, etc) in the frame.

    5. Re:Super cool by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      Right, duh.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
  6. Why is it blured between Beijing and Shanghai? by WaffleMonster · · Score: 3

    I don't get it. Is this some kind of compression artifact? Intentional redaction?

    The camera is stationary WRT ISS so how does blurriness follow the same position on the globe when everything around it and before and after remains in focus?

    1. Re:Why is it blured between Beijing and Shanghai? by religionofpeas · · Score: 2

      Maybe just a kind of diffuse lighting, possibly greenhouses ?

    2. Re:Why is it blured between Beijing and Shanghai? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Probably clouds, smog or both

    3. Re:Why is it blured between Beijing and Shanghai? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      the same reason google maps adds inaccuracies. Its censorship at the request of the Chinese government. At least thats my assumption. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restrictions_on_geographic_data_in_China

    4. Re: Why is it blured between Beijing and Shanghai? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I did like the brief glimpse of South America - such a contrast to the rest of the world

    5. Re: Why is it blured between Beijing and Shanghai? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      such a contrast to the rest of the world

      In what way? You could see the murders in Brazil from space or something?

    6. Re:Why is it blured between Beijing and Shanghai? by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Looks like cloud cover, or maybe smog. Because it's always at night it's hard to tell.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    7. Re:Why is it blured between Beijing and Shanghai? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Cloud cover. You're not seeing the lights below, you're seeing the clouds that are lit up by the lights below.

      You can also see a slight parallax, making it seem like the lights are 'higher' than those before or after them... because they are, since you're seeing the top of the cloud cover a few miles up rather than at ground level.

    8. Re:Why is it blured between Beijing and Shanghai? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hentai porn censorship?

    9. Re:Why is it blured between Beijing and Shanghai? by macklin01 · · Score: 1

      I'm guessing cloud cover. Which would tend to track with the underlying land ... Just like the clouds over much of southern Europe around 0:21 and 7:03 in the video.

      --
      OpenSource.MathCancer.org: open source comp bio
    10. Re:Why is it blured between Beijing and Shanghai? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      er, that is called a cloud.

  7. Re:You people need to STOP BULLYING ME... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You're NOT being downvoted by bullies!

    You're being downvoted for posting the same OFF TOPIC shit in EVERY thread.

  8. Re:You people need to STOP BULLYING ME... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm sure not even the real APK. He's probably long gone by now.

  9. How many pics does it take... by geekmux · · Score: 2

    ...to convince a flat-earther they're wrong?

    Apparently 21,376.

    1. Re:How many pics does it take... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This isn't convincing. The curvature is caused by the fisheye lense.

    2. Re:How many pics does it take... by dcw3 · · Score: 1

      This isn't convincing. The curvature is caused by the fisheye lense.

      ...as it is moved around what shape?

      --
      Just another day in Paradise
    3. Re:How many pics does it take... by ClickOnThis · · Score: 1

      This isn't convincing. The curvature is caused by the fisheye lense.

      True. But what is convincing is that after 90 minutes you come back pretty much to where you started, with some shift due to the Earth's rotation.

      --
      If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
    4. Re:How many pics does it take... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This isn't convincing. The curvature is caused by the fisheye lense.

      (Narrator) "In the end, there was no convincing the flat-earthers that they were wrong, for the argued no evidence is convincing because the human eye is round, hence creating yet another illusion..."

    5. Re:How many pics does it take... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why is this convincing? Their craft could be making circles on a flat earth, with some shift if you want too. The fact that you discarded such a simple explanation makes you look dumb and brainwashed.

  10. Re:Moscow Donald Marks 2 Years by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Orange man, living rent free in your mind, and loving it. There's lots of room.

  11. What is Winter Sunlight? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    For this reason, God sends them a powerful delusion(operation of wandering)(planet) so that they will believe the lie.
    Working of Error

  12. Re:Moscow Donald Marks 2 Years by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Moscow Donald's campaign manager is living rent free in prison, and now that he know he colluded with Assange and the Russians he'll to be joined by all the traitors on Trump's campaign, and by King Treason himself.

  13. That's nice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The moon landing? Totally worth it.
    Landing on Mars? That would be totally worth it.
    Orbiting the Earth... for 20 years. Not all that exciting.

    At least we got this cool video after all those years and billions of dollars.

  14. In the other news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    In the non-fake news department, president Trump tells he does not believe that man has flown to space. He backs up his claims by stating that as the Earth is flat, one could not make such videos from the International space station.

  15. Re:You people need to STOP BULLYING ME... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    As soon as I post, I'm CENSORED to -1 w/ ABUSED downmodpoints

    This whiny, self-absorbed rant is utterly off-topic. I would mod it down if I had any points, if someone hadn't already modded it down. (Thanks, mods!)

    If your account had negative karma and/or hateful followers, then maybe you should take the hint: this forum doesn't like you. That happens sometimes. The best response is usually moving somewhere that is a better match.

  16. IMPERSONATING ME AGAIN? apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    gweihir KNEW u IMPERSONATE me https://it.slashdot.org/commen... c6gunner proves it https://linux.slashdot.org/com... & forgot to SUBMIT AC & used his registered 'lusrname' (he tried to mock me both BEFORE & after I FAIRLY challenged him to show he's done better work - he had ZERO).

    I'd never "cry victim" to ne'er-do-wells (TROLLS, not all /.ers) either.

    U EVEN HELPED ME https://science.slashdot.org/c... (& then realizing it you quit trying to make me look bad via what you thought were lies on hosts as "ME" IN YOUR IMPERSONATIONS of me e.g. https://tech.slashdot.org/comm... on speculative execution attack: Hosts PREVENT 'EM, joke's on you)

    APK

    P.S.=> 2nd to last link's KILLING U THAT U HELPED ME & got me to see if hosts stop portsmash/meltdown/spectre & yes - hosts WORK on 'em - U LOSE + FAIL a PORTFILTER TEST https://yro.slashdot.org/comme...

  17. Awesome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The sunrise is spectacular.

    New Zealand even features on the first night pass, but no label? :(

  18. Re:You people need to STOP BULLYING ME... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "It" is not using any account, though.

  19. They took out the pics of the edge by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Its all part of the conspiracy. You people are tools.