Here's Looking At You, Discovery!

[terpkristin]

Coolest picture you'll see today.
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/shuttle/sts-114/hires/iss011e11227.jpg

/tk

[Raiders Army]

Gotta second that. Awesome.

[Cringer]

I think space walking would make me puke.

[Fidatelo]

How did they get that picture?

[terpkristin]

It was taken by the crew on ISS.

/tk

[JonInMiddleGA]

Ah, I get it now. I was wondering the same thing Fidatelo asked (and was having one heck of a time figuring it out).

[KWhit]

Wow.

That's incredible.

[Klinglerware]

Can anybody guess what part of Earth is in the background?

[Wolfpack]

I've wondered about it. There's farmland across the lower left, but it abruptly runs into wooded areas that run top-to-bottom behind the shuttle. The wooded areas could be low mountains. There's no snow-capping to indicate tall mountains. Seems to be a little more open spaces on the right side of the image. It looks like a First World area with a decently developed road system, probably in the US somewhere. However, I can't really be sure where just with that slice of Earth.

[terpkristin]

Ditto. I wondered, but without knowing when the picture was taken, it's almost impossible to tell without a far better knowledge of geography and topography (well, far better knowledge of either than I have...).

/tk

[Klinglerware]

Yeah, almost impossible--like those Conde Nast Traveller "where is this picture taken?" contests. Here, you don't even know where due north is...