ISS Star Trails ᐉ

Some 400 km above the Earth surface, astronauts in the International Space Station (ISS) have exceptional views to the home planet, circling around the Earth every 90 minutes and traveling in space almost 20 times faster than a bullet. This timelapse video clip is created by TWAN-Austria photographer Christoph Malin, based on photo sequences made by NASA’s crew aboard the ISS, specially thanks to astronaut Don Pettit. Thousands of images are stacked to create these star trails that forms by the joint motion of the station and the Earth. Star trail images on Earth are the result of the Earth rotation only, but aboard the station the main factor is the fast rotating satellite that also slowly revolves around it self. The circumpolar trails are not formed around Polaris but around the station rotation axis. Also notable are the dancing aurora above the Earth and millions of lights shining from the civilized planet, a clear evidence of our immense light pollution. Earth. The scenes also shows lightning in the clouds, occasional satellite tracks and Iridium flashes as well as meteors that cross the main star trails. (2011-2012)