Trip the Light Fantastic

June 22, 2010 9:18 PM

High above the earth, Astronaut Douglas H. Wheelock is tweeting from his new six month position on the International Space Station. His latest twitpics include the Southern Lights from space. Another photograph of this phenomenon is credited to the expedition.

Southern Lights previously on Mefi.

posted by NoraCharles (13 comments total)

Pacific Star II is a recent home made high altitude weather balloon photography project. The balloon was launched from Oxnard, CA and reached an altitude of 125,000 feet snapping photos and recording video along the way. See also, Pacific Star I near Calico, CA. This one traveled 96.4 miles and attained a height of 33km, but had camera condensation issues.
posted by netbros at 9:44 PM on June 22, 2010

S(t)weet.
posted by New England Cultist at 9:53 PM on June 22, 2010

Animated Aurora Borealis, from Orbit
posted by homunculus at 9:55 PM on June 22, 2010

Aurora in May, over North America from Astro_Soichi.
posted by unliteral at 10:26 PM on June 22, 2010

The only thing cooler than the Southern Lights is Tweets® posted on the website of the for-profit company Twitter®!

I can't wait to check it out at www.twitter.com!
posted by hamida2242 at 11:50 PM on June 22, 2010

Thanks for sharing the additional links netbros, homunculus and uliteral!

I've always seen the standard pictures of the earth from space looking like the blue/white/brown/green marble. It just struck me as cool that our planet has these dancing around us and how that might look to others observing us. We may not have rings like Saturn, but these are beautiful.
posted by NoraCharles at 6:10 AM on June 23, 2010

The only thing cooler than the Southern Lights is Tweets® posted on the website of the for-profit company Twitter®!

Right? We'd be MUCH better off if he wasn't posting these!
posted by dirtdirt at 6:13 AM on June 23, 2010

The guys' tweets are pretty schlocky, but the pictures are cool.
posted by garlic at 6:16 AM on June 23, 2010

Astronauts on twitter, previously. io9 has a little gallery of twitpics from space, and collectSpace is keeping a running tally of twitter handles for astronauts, now up to 18 NASA astronauts, 6 international astronauts, and a few more associated folks.
posted by filthy light thief at 6:34 AM on June 23, 2010

This is so incredibly sad.

.
posted by Crabby Appleton at 7:39 AM on June 23, 2010

Crabby Appleton: why so sad?
posted by zsazsa at 9:12 AM on June 23, 2010

MOON! *drools*
posted by Atom Eyes at 9:34 AM on June 23, 2010

i like this one too :P
posted by kliuless at 9:41 AM on July 11, 2010