News Space and time-lapse

Today’s date (7 April) has close links to the world beyond our own – space itself.

32 years ago, during STS-6 (NASA’s sixth Space Shuttle mission), Story Musgrave and Donald Peterson both completed the first ever Space Shuttle spacewalks.

In 1990 American astronaut Ronald Evans, one of only 24 people to have flown to the moon and Command Module Pilot of the final Apollo mission, sadly passed away. Seven years later one of the original cosmonauts, Georgy Shonin, also died.

And just 14 years ago the aptly named 2001 Mars Odyssey launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station aboard Delta II. By December 15, 2010 it had broken the record for the longest servicing spacecraft in the vicinity of Mars.

So it only seems fitting to keep up the space theme – and delve into some of the breath-taking time-lapse videos that have cropped up online.

Thomas O’Brien’s “Meteor” video is a fantastic look at the night sky from the ground. The pristine shots give a crystal-clear view of the stars and meteor showers above.

Nicholas Buer’s “Ancients” (below) is not only one of the most visually pleasing star-scape time-lapses around, but it is also a great example of the Earth and the sky above in perfect harmony.

Ancients from Nicholas Buer on Vimeo.

And this final video by Michael König has been produced using images from the International Space Station (so you know it’s going to be good!) König tried to stay true to the original images and applied next-to-no postproduction techniques that would affect the colours of the piece. It ends up as a perfect representation of the Earth from above – thunderstorms and all – all taken from outside of the planet’s atmosphere. Simply incredible!