Livestream of the earth, running (almost) 24/7

July 13, 2024 2:17 PM

ISS High Definition Live Streaming Video of the Earth. The High Definition Earth-Viewing System concluded its mission on August 22, 2019. In retirement, it has been showing a livestream of the earth from its spot on the International Space Station External Payload Facility of the European Space Agency’s Columbus module.

From the guide on the page:

Black = on the nighttime side of the Earth
Gray = The ground support computer has stopped sending video to YouTube and will be reset shortly.
Moving spots of light in the dark = lights on the surface of the Earth. This camera can see cities at night (if not cloudy)
Non-moving spots in the image = damaged or bad pixels

Astronauts inside the ISS talk on the stream occasionally. Sometimes, it's a short press conference. More often, it's astronauts asking each other operational questions. The other day, someone was looking for a cap, which turned out to be in a mesh bag, rather than a ziplock one as expected.

posted by ignignokt (6 comments total)

Thank you for this, ignignokt.
posted by doctornemo at 2:19 PM on July 13

I used an hour-long clip of this as my Zoom background at my last job, timed so that "nightfall" came around the 45-minute mark as a subtle cue to wrap it up. Haven't recreated it yet because my new job has a much better meeting culture...
posted by McBearclaw at 2:43 PM on July 13 [6 favorites]

(Eponysterical?)
posted by McBearclaw at 2:44 PM on July 13 [1 favorite]

I used to have the live stream as my screensaver on one monitor with the map on the other. RIP

Kudos McBearclaw
posted by rubatan at 3:26 PM on July 13 [1 favorite]

“You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, ‘Look at that, you son of a bitch.” -- Edgar Dean "Ed" Mitchell
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 5:10 PM on July 13 [1 favorite]

Thanks for this. I just downloaded the NASA "Spot the Station" app to my phone, so I know when to look up because if they're looking at me, I wanna see 'em coming.
posted by not_on_display at 12:40 AM on July 14