It seems appropriate today when the 'Live 8 concert' is taking place in Hyde Park, London, that we share with you this fantastic picture that Annie found. Left-click on this image for enlarged picture.
It was the last photo taken by the crew aboard the Columbia during its last mission. The picture is of Europe and Africa when the sun is setting. Half of the picture is in night. The bright dots you see are the cities' lights.
The top part of Africa is the Sahara Desert.
Note that the lights are already on in Holland, Paris, and Barcelona, and that it's still daylight in Dublin, London, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Lisbon and Madrid.
The sun is still shining on the Strait of Gibraltar. The Mediterranean Sea is already in darkness. In the middle of the Atlantic Ocean you can see the Azores Islands; below them to the right are the Madeira Islands; a bit below are the Canary Islands; and further South, close to the farthest western point of Africa, are the Cape Verde islands.
Note that the Sahara is huge and can be seen both during daytime and night time. To the left, on top, is Greenland, totally frozen.
This makes Annie and I feel in awe of our planet. What do you think?
2 comments:
That is truly an awesome picture. We certainly live on a beautiful planet. the earth has allot of bad things that take place on it, but it a truly remarkable place and is made up of some truly remarkable people. We will be on vacation from July 8-17. We will be in Florida and will be staying about 10 miles from where the shuttle will be launched. It is scheduled to be launched on the 13th. If all goes as planned we will have front row seats of the launch. It will be exciting to see one of mankinds great wonders and hopefully see more beautiful pictures from this mission. I am in awe of the picture and the wonderful description you give of it. Thanks.
Enjoy your vacation Rocky - eat plenty of ice cream :-)
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