← Mocubix

Mocubix · Exhibit 02 · From the space station, 2017–2024

Night side

Eight night passes of the International Space Station, laid end to end in the one direction it flies: east. Scroll down and the window moves sideways, and the station crosses the map with it. The distance you cover with your thumb becomes distance over the ground.

NASA's Black Marble: the Earth at night in 2016, with the station's route from New York east to Melbourne
New York City at night from the station: the five boroughs and part of New Jersey
01 New York · 23 November 2017
Northern Europe at night: the Baltic Sea at centre, Berlin, Copenhagen and Oslo lit along its shores, a faint aurora above
02 Northern Europe · 17 January 2022
Moscow at night, ringed by its suburbs
03 Moscow · 16 September 2024
The city lights of central Asia with a green aurora along the horizon
04 Central Asia · 16 September 2024
The city lights of western India and Pakistan spread across the dark subcontinent
05 India and Pakistan · 20 March 2020
A flash of lightning inside a cloud, brighter than the city lights around it
06 Southeast Asia · 29 October 2024
City lights of Malaysia and Indonesia, with the lights of boats scattered on the sea
07 Malaysia & Indonesia · 21 March 2020
Melbourne at night, wrapped around the bay of Port Phillip
08 Melbourne · 9 October 2024

Pass 8 of 8 · Melbourne, 9 October 2024

22,858 km

Of night, from New York to Melbourne, always east: 49 minutes 44 seconds at the station’s speed.

A list stacks.
A window passes.

Down the page these would be eight separate pictures. Laid across it, in the order the station flies, they become one crossing of the night. They were taken years apart, by five crews; the route is the one they share. Always east, climbing toward 51.6° north and falling toward 51.6° south, as every orbit does.