Not too long ago NASA released beautiful photographs of the Earth at night. Illuminated mostly by the lights at night it painted a beautiful picture of how dark certain portions of the world really are.
I took the time to precisely locate certain places on the map. Just take a moment to compare the light pollution of say Chicago, Illinois to Havre or Cleveland, Montana. Even Madison, Wisconsin looks positively polluted with electrical lights when compared to the western portion of the U.S. Perhaps one of the most interesting places on the map, though, is that area of the map near Williston, North Dakota. Otherwise known as the Bakken oil field, this part of the country has been booming in recent years with shale oil production. And this aerial view of the country proves it visually.
Simply amazing.
Also be sure to watch this video to see what night looks like from the International Space Station (ISS) where the above photograph was captured and created.
Time lapse sequences of photographs taken by the crew of expeditions 28 & 29 onboard the International Space Station from August to October, 2011, who to my knowledge shot these pictures at an altitude of around 350 km. All credit goes to them. HD, refurbished, smoothed, retimed, denoised, deflickered, cut, etc. All in all I tried to keep the looks of the material as original as possible, avoided adjusting the colors and the like, since in my opinion the original footage itself already has an almost surreal and aestethical visual nature. Music: Jan Jelinek | Do Dekor, faitiche back2001 w+p by Jan Jelinek, published by scape Publishing / Universal http://www.janjelinek.com | http://www.faitiche.de Image Courtesy of the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center, The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov Editing: Michael König | http://www.koenigm.com Shooting locations in order of appearance: 1. Aurora Borealis Pass over the United States at Night 2. Aurora Borealis and eastern United States at Night 3. Aurora Australis from Madagascar to southwest of Australia 4. Aurora Australis south of Australia 5. Northwest coast of United States to Central South America at Night 6. Aurora Australis from the Southern to the Northern Pacific Ocean 7. Halfway around the World 8. Night Pass over Central Africa and the Middle East 9. Evening Pass over the Sahara Desert and the Middle East 10. Pass over Canada and Central United States at Night 11. Pass over Southern California to Hudson Bay 12. Islands in the Philippine Sea at Night 13. Pass over Eastern Asia to Philippine Sea and Guam 14. Views of the Mideast at Night 15. Night Pass over Mediterranean Sea 16. Aurora Borealis and the United States at Night 17. Aurora Australis over Indian Ocean 18. Eastern Europe to Southeastern Asia at Night
