Incredible ISS timelapse shows us as much of the satellite as of space (VIDEO)

David Peterson set out to do something slightly unusual with this incredible timelapse from the ISS. Rather than just focus on the astonishing view from the station, he also wanted to show the ISS itself, making this incredible vehicle also part of the story. And his new video The World Outside My Window gives us a glimpse not just of planetary vistas and star strewn skies, but also of that little station which supports human life up there.

In the YouTube description, Peterson explains:

This montage of time-lapse photography from the International Space Station is collected from many taken in Expeditions 29, 30 and 31...The goal with this sequence was to bring a bit more attention to the station itself, including the humans aboard it, particularly Don Pettit (appearing in the final shot) who took many of the sequences in this montage.

The footage was assembled from freely available images from NASA, and Peterson has also included in the YouTube notes descriptions of what part of the globe each scene is, so that you can better understand the location of the timelapse.

By including the ISS, Peterson has given a bit more context to the images, tying them to the actual living space of the astronauts. It manages to give a sense of scale to the unimaginable, and will doubtless fire up any latent desire you ever had to head into space.

(via io9)