Take a moment to marvel at this view of Earth as captured by something known as the Suomi NPP satellite, operated jointly by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Says NASA: “The data was acquired over nine days in April 2012 and 13 days in October 2012. It took 312 orbits to get a clear shot of every parcel of Earth's land surface and islands. This new data was then mapped over existing Blue Marble imagery of Earth to provide a realistic view of the planet.”

All that work to get a seamless picture of a cloudless world. Definitely worth the effort.

This brings to mind the work of an interesting nonprofit group, the International Dark-Sky Association. Their cause, which we described in a 2010 REI Blog post, is to reduce the amount of unnatural light that diminishes an earthling’s view of a deep, dark sky at night. The group is battling what it calls light pollution.

Anyone who has enjoyed after-dark phenomena such as moonbows in Yosemite (see video below) or astronomy viewing parties at various national parks might find the IDA’s work of value.