Our planet is a miracle of delicate balance. No night city lights here. This video is a composition of new timelapse pictures that were taken by the crew of Expedition 34 on board the International Space Station. The sequence of shots was taken between December 2012 and January 2013 music: Lee Rosevere - Nightlight (edit) from Free Music Archive edit by Fabio Di Donato Image Courtesy of the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center, The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth eol.jsc.nasa.gov Minor color correction applied ----------------------------- Featured sequences: A Jump over the Terminator The sequence of shots was taken on January 5, 2013 from 12:53:14 to 13:19:54 GMT, on a pass from western Iran, near the border of Iraq, to the Southern Ocean, just south of Western Australia. This video begins looking southeast over the Persian Gulf, with the Arabian Peninsula on the right and Iran to the left. As the pass continues down the Persian Gulf, the city of Dubai is near nadir on a small peninsula jetting out into the gulf. The ISS then flies over the Indian Ocean, with the terminator line slowly approaching from the left of the video. Moonset across South America The sequence of shots was taken on December 29, 2012 from 13:15:54 to 13:19:28 GMT, on a pass from the southern Pacific Ocean, about 1000 miles west of Chile, to western Peru, just over the city of Lima. The original sequence features the moon setting over the southern Pacific Ocean, in this video it's been reversed. The moon phase on 29 December 2012 was Waning Gibbous, as the actual full moon was the previous day, on 28 December 2012. From Night to Day to Night Again The sequence of shots was taken on January 3, 2013 from 11:43:46 to 15:49:31 GMT, on a pass from northwestern Australia This video shows one sequence from dawn to sunset while the original shot features two complete orbits to eastern Quebec, near the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Over the Strait of Gibraltar and Africa The sequence of shots was taken on January 5, 2013 from 15:54:21 to 16:21:17 GMT, on a pass from the north Atlantic Ocean, west of the Iberian Peninsula, to the southern Indian Ocean, southeast of Madagascar. The sequence has been reversed on this video, merging into the next sequence Western Africa To Japan. The original sequence begins looking southeast toward the Iberian Peninsula. As the ISS continues southeast toward Africa, the Strait of Gibraltar can be seen separating the Iberian Peninsula and the clay-colored northern Africa. The pass then continues over the Sahara Desert in northern Africa, as the terminator line slowly appears from the left side of the video. Cloud shadows, known as crepuscular rays, are seen on the daylight side of the terminator. The video ends as the ISS travels into darkness. Western Africa to Japan The sequence of shots was taken on January 4, 2013 from 05:23:00 to 05:56:16 GMT, on a pass from the border of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo to just east of Japan. The original video begins as the ISS travels northeast over central Africa just after sunrise. As the ISS flies over northeastern Africa, the Nile River can be seen in a zigzag pattern across the rust-colored desert. The ISS then crosses over the Red Sea before flying over the Arabian Peninsula and the Middle East region. The video ends as the ISS travels northeast over the snow-covered areas of western Russia and China.