The stars as viewed from the International Space Station -

Timelapse videos depicting the stars from low earth orbit, as viewed from the International Space Station. Images edited using Adobe Lightroom with some cropping to make the stars the focal point of each shot, and with manipulation of the contrast to bring out the stars a bit more.

Thanks to NASA astronaut Don Pettit who took some beautiful photos from the International Space Station, and photographer Alex Rivest, who assembled the photos into a time-lapse video, now you can come quite close to finding out how it would look like.

Don Pettit is currently aboard the ISS on a 30-day long mission, and his idea was to take some long-exposure photos to capture star trails from space.

“Space Station makes one revolution every 90 minutes (the Moon takes 28 days). As a result, long-exposure pictures taken from the Station show star trails as circular arcs, with the center of rotation being the poles of Space Station,” Pettit wrote in a blog post.

Pettit’s photos also capture some other beautiful natural phenomena, such as auroras above the Earth.

As beautiful as Pettit’s photos are, Rivest’s time-lapse video (coupled with some chill-out music) makes the entire sight truly amazing.

“On a lucky night living in the city, you can maybe see 5 stars if you are lucky, so to be able to get away from light pollution and be reminded of how many stars there are is always a humbling experience,” Rivest toldSpace.com.

The video plays best if you let it load a bit first.

Music: “Truck out There” by London PM.
Buy the Track here: itunes.apple.com/us/album/truck-out-there-single/id513091776

Editing by Alex Rivest

First sequence star-trails processed using StarStaX:
markus-enzweiler.de/software/software.html

Timelapses and images courtesy: The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. The Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center. One of NASA’s best outreach programs, in my opinion.
eol.jsc.nasa.gov/Videos/CrewEarthObservationsVideos/

A very big thanks to NASA astronaut Don Pettit (@astro_Pettit) for taking most of these images.

Dedicated to those who dream of exploring the solar system, and those who are sharing their experiences while doing it.