Video of the Day – Flying over Earth on the ISS


If you haven’t seen this video since its emergence on the internet in the past two days, stop whatever you’re doing, plug in your best headphones, quit your other applications (so you can watch in silky smooth HD), and full-screen this amazing compilation of moving images.

Edited by Michael König, this time-lapse was created by stitching together a series of still images shot by astronauts Ron Garan, Satoshi Furukawa, and the crews of expeditions 28 & 29 onboard the International Space Station. Shot from an altitude of 350km between August and October 2011, the images were captured at 4K resolution with NASA’s Super-Sensitive High Definition TV system.

The imaging system picks up much more light than a normal HD camera is capable of, thus capturing a vivid look at the surface of the Earth and aurora borealis that’s unlike anything humanity has seen before.

Assuming that you don’t have $1 million to book an entire Virgin Galactic flight exclusively for your family, this video should be a pleasant placeholder until you get your finances in order. Until then, leave us a comment with a link to your favorite shots from the ground! It could be our next Photo/Video of the Day.

Photo of the Day – Lightning storm

There’s something powerful and strangely eerie about today’s lightning photo by Flickr user fdean55. The spindly tendrils of light, glowing clouds and ominous sky suggest a scene of foreboding and, at the same time, natural beauty. Like many of the best travel shots, it’s a photo of a beautiful fleeting moment captured by the fortuitous click of a camera shutter. Be ready – you never know when inspiration may hit!

Have any great serendipitous travel shots you’d like to share? Why not add them to our Gadling group on Flickr? We might just pick one of yours as our Photo of the Day.

Photo of the day: Lightning over Miami

When Sarah March caught wind of the nasty storm rolling into Miami last week, she didn’t curl up with a blanket and a book like the rest of us who weren’t even in Miami at the time did. Instead, she was out on her balcony. To be more precise, she was out on her balcony with her camera. She caught a snapshot of this thick bolt of peachy-white lightning as it was striking. According to her caption under the Facebook upload that caught my eye in my feed, the storm soon after increased in severity and (I’m guessing here) she probably went back inside.

Lightning photos still elude me. It strikes, I snap. Those two things never seem to happen at the same time. And it doesn’t help that I’m living in Texas now, where it apparently never rains ever. I can’t even practice this instantaneous art. Kudos to Sarah for this photo and to anyone else who can manage to snap their camera as the lightning strikes. You’re all better than I am. At that.

Photo of the Day (6.6.10)

If you’ve never experienced a thunderstorm as it rolls across the Great Plains, you’re missing out. During the shimmering-hot days of summer, you can hear and see these monsters coming from far away. Thunder rumbles ominously. Dark storm clouds rise to immense heights. The branches of trees flutter about in the intensifying breeze. It’s truly one of the nature’s greatest spectacles – the power, beauty and sound of these huge storms is a force to be reckoned with. That’s why Flickr user SenzEnina’s capture of one of these amazing summer storms caught my eye today. The dark wavy storm clouds and tiny farm suggest a scene with an interesting dramatic tension, right before the thunderstorm reaches the observer.

Taken any great photos of nature during your travels? Why not add them to our Gadling group on Flickr? We might just pick one of yours as our Photo of the Day.

Video of 747 struck by lightning

It’s nice to know that if your 747 gets struck with 40 kiloamperes of electricity that it can keep on trucking. Aircraft are designed to withstand lightning strikes (if not multiple lightning strikes), although various small amounts of damage can occur. As one 747-400 pilot at the Professional Pilots Rumor Network (pprune) commented, “the auto-pilot dropped out and a few minor systems were temporarily lost” after a lightning strike on his aircraft, but shortly after that everything resumed.

Lightning strikes happen fairly often on commercial aircraft, but rarely is the event caught on film. This ANA 747 was hit just after take off, which can be a critical time during operation, but everyone and the aircraft survived just fine.