14 Feb Nova Scotia from space — video edition

Earlier today, I posted a photograph of uncertain provenance showing Nova Scotia as seen from the International Space Station at night, and wondered out loud where it had come from.

The estimable Bethany Horne of Halifax Open File pointed us to this Reddit post, and thence to this collection of NASA astronaut videography, where we tracked down the amazing sequence from which our image — a screenshot, as it turns out — was clipped. Check out this gorgeous time-lapse video from the space station’s January 29 pass up the East Coast of North America, starting at the southern edge of the Gulf of Mexico and ending off the northeast coast of Newfoundland. For full effect, view it in full screen mode.

From NASA’s annotation:

These sequences of frames were taken at the rate of one frame per second, therefore the slower speed of the video more closely represents the true speed of the International Space Station than previous videos.

This video was taken by the crew of Expedition 30 on board the International Space Station. The sequence of shots was taken January 29, 2012 from 05:33:11 to 05:48:10 GMT, on a pass from just southwest of Mexico to the North Atlantic Ocean, northeast of Newfoundland.

This pass begins looking over Central America towards the Gulf of Mexico and the southeastern United States. As the ISS travels northeast over the gulf, some southeastern United States cities can be distinguished, like New Orleans, Mobile, Jacksonville, and Atlanta. Note the numerous bright spots of what are likely oil drilling platforms in the Gulf off the Mississippi Delta.

Continuing up the east coast, some northeastern states, like Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York City stand out brightly along the coastline.

The Aurora Borealis shines in the background as the pass finishes near Newfoundland.

Video courtesy of the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center. View more here.