This will be very cool: on Wednesday at 08:30 Pacific Time, NASA and Discovery HD Theater will broadcast live high-definition TV from the space station.
I used to get NASA TV when I lived in Maryland, and sometimes, on a winter’s evening, I would sit with music playing quietly and NASA TV on and just watch, letting my thoughts drift. My favorite time was when the Shuttle crew would be sleeping, and they would just show a camera pointed at Earth. The shots over the day-lit Earth were spectacular, but far better was when it was nighttime. You could see city lights, thunderstorms blazing, and when they pointed the camera at the horizon you could see the curved limb of the Earth, the atmospheric aerosol haze layer glowing eerily, and the stars rising behind the limb. It was hypnotizing, serene, and beautiful.
I don’t have NASA TV on cable anymore, so this high-def broadcast should slake my thirst for space video… for a while. If it works out, I’d love to see an HD camera pointed down and a dedicated channel for it. I’d let it run all the time on my TV.
