I am currently on my way to Costa Rica. I will be there for a week, and within about 36 hours of when I get back, I will be off to Greenville, South Carolina for the first Great Homeschool Convention of the season. Because of this, I am not sure how much time I will have for blog-related activities over the next couple of weeks. This means my blog might be significantly less interactive than usual for a while. On the bright side, since my travel season is starting, there will be more Notes From The Road entries.
In the meantime, please enjoy this nighttime video from the International Space Station. It starts out dark, but eventually shows you lights from cities, clouds, lightning strikes, and auroras, all from above. The thin, curved line is the haze of earth’s atmosphere, and the brightness that approaches intermittently marks when the space station is moving into the sunlit side of earth. It is well worth watching!
Great video, thanks for sharing.
Costa Rica!!! what a nice country and they are the happiest people in the world:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/07/opinion/07kristof.html
And I know it because I live there
So far, I have found it to be a wonderful country. It is beautiful, and the people are very nice. I even got to meet President Laura Chinchilla Miranda! I will post a photo and a brief discussion when I get a chance.
The link you gave explains something. As we were approaching immigration and customs, there was a sign that said something like, “Welcome to Costa Rica, the happiest place on earth.” I thought it was just propaganda for tourists, but now I expect the sign was based on the survey mentioned in the article.
Have a good trip Dr. Wile.
The view from the ISS is so cool, but I wish there were a lot more construction in space than just one LEO microgravity station that has to subsist off of supplies from the surface of the Earth. It still looks awesome though, especially seeing the pattern of lightning activity and cloud interaction with topography, and the aurora is pretty neat too.
I agree that more construction would be nice, Ben, but you have to consider the price!
Are you going to NCHE, Dr. Wile? If I do not land an REU this summer, then I might get to hear you, assuming NC is on your list. Our Earth is awe-inspiring, especially from that vantage point. I’m used to thinking of light pollution as a bad thing, but it really adds a lot to the beauty of Creation as seen from low-earth orbit in the video.
Unfortunately, WSH, I was not invited to NCHE this year (or the previous few years, actually). Hopefully, you will get the REU grant anyway. When I did nuclear chemistry research, part of my NSF grant was funded through the REU program.
That was an awesome video! My favorite part was the lightning- amazing!
Hope your travels go smoothly!
Thanks, Vivielle!