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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."

7 of 54 comments (clear)

  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
  2. 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...

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    #DeleteChrome
  3. 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 ?

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

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

    Apparently 21,376.

  5. 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.

  6. 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.

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    Just another day in Paradise