A Night Flight Over the Mideast

Our planet seen from orbit in this video (animation) made from still images taken from the Space Station, from the night side of Earth. Some glare from the Moon (off screen to the upper left) can be seen in the plexiglas of the ISS window. The flashes are lightning in clouds. This video was taken by the crew of Expedition 29 on board the International Space Station. The sequence of shots was taken October 21, 2011 from 19:53:26 to 20:25:24 GMT, on a pass beginning over Turkmenistan, east of the Caspian Sea to southeastern China, just northwest of Hong Kong. City lights show at the beginning of the video as the ISS travels southeastward towards the India-Pakistan borderline (click here for our Earth Observatory article to learn more about this area). Pakistan’s second largest city, Lahore, can be easily seen as the brightly lit area left of track. Immediately downtrack of Lahore is New Delhi, India’s capital city, with the Kathiawar Peninsula right of track dimly lit. Smaller cities in so