Follow any astronaut currently aboard the International Space Station on Twitter and you’re guaranteed to see stunning photo after stunning photo, showing off the glorious wonder the stars have to offer. If you’d like a more organised way of viewing this constantly evolving gallery, complete with a map of Earth pointing out where each shot was taken, there’s now a website for that.
Last week, Dave MacLean of Canada’s Centre of Geographic Sciences went to the trouble of plotting the positions of over 650 photos, taken from the perspective of the ISS crew. The map, hosted on ArcGIS, provides latitude / longitude markers that link directly to the source tweet and you can hover over each one for a small preview.
Australia has a respectable collection of photos, though it’s not as action-packed as other areas. The country’s mines do look fascinating from space, as does New Zealand’s glacial lakes and snow-covered southern alps.
Spend a bit of time exploring and you’ll quickly get lost in it. Don’t say you weren’t warned…
[ArcGIS, via Dave MacLean]
Photo: Reid Wiseman