International Space Station astronaut Don Pettit lived on the station for about a year, and took many pictures while up there. The results of his innovative photographic work and passion have changed the way we see earth from space.
Next, astrophotographer Christoph Malin took thousands of Pettit's individual photos and animated them, adding clips of Pettit giving a talk about his stay aboard the ISS and his photography there. He also set it to music, creating a simply stunning time-lapse video.
The result is certainly worth watching. So, set aside 16 minutes of your busy day, sit back, and soak this in: “The ISS Image Frontier”.
"Making the invisible visible" - the ISS Image Frontier from Christoph Malin on Vimeo.
The video presents an interesting perspective of our planet.
Many astronauts, even from back in the Apollo days, talk about an incredible feeling they get after a few days in space. As they gaze on the Earth from above, they lose their feeling of borders and nationality. The Saudi astronaut Sultan bin Salman Al-Saud, who flew on the Space Shuttle in 1985, commented on this, saying , “The first day or so we all pointed to our countries. The third or fourth day we were pointing to our continents. By the fifth day, we were aware of only one Earth.”
On a different note, the technique where they create a composite view of a visual time series is facinating. It makes the invisible visible ... and has many uses in the big data space as well. Very cool!
