Originally posted by IRingTwyce:
A satellite in low earth orbit (LEO) circles the globe roughly every ninety minutes. Since you'll only get a good night shot with the earth between the satellite and the sun, then as long as the shots were taken fairly close together (and not months apart) you'll always be facing the same stars regardless of the rotation of the earth below. You would only have star movement with a geosynchronous satellite that remains in a fixed position above the earth and rotates with it (but then you wouldn't have shots of different sides of the planet).

I think the full night shots are real, but possibly enhanced for more contrast and definition.

Sorry Hydramatic....I WIN!



But a LEO bird will not give you a full-planet shot unless they are composited. The whole-planet night pictures you see are taken from at least 10,000 miles. LEO birds orbit well under 1000 miles and have a comparatively narrow FOV (and you won't see stars unless the view angle is all wrong for mapping).

If anyone felt the least bit qualified he/she could search the NASA website and find that those night shots are most likely NOAA DMSP (LEO) images stitched together into a composite photo. You can find multiple placemarkers for Google Earth out there that use this composite imagery to produce exactly what you see on this guy's website.

B. Riley Melbourne, FL '01 Camry LE V6/5-spd Was: '00 Black/Tan SVT Contour #560 - Sold 3/26/03 Before that: '95 Champ/Blue Contour GL V6 ATX