How Do Astronauts See The Earth?

Question

When astronauts look outside their window in space during a normal
orbit, do they see the Earth from a north-south perspective (North
Pole at top)?

Answer 1

No, when the astronauts look outside their window in space, their
orientation (and thus their view) in general has no relationship to
the north-south perspective of earth. As an example, see
http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view_rec.php?id=1519
which shows parts of Lake Ontario, Lake Erie, the Finger Lakes, the
St. Lawrence and Niagara Rivers. The perspective in this image is not
north/south (from the glare, it appears to be taken from east to
west).

The Visible Earth site at
http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/
has a number of images, most have been rectified to be oriented with
north at the top, but not in all cases. A quick search of
"orientation" or "perspective" on that site
http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/search.php?q=orientation
http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/search.php?q=perspective
yields a number of images that are not necessarily with north at the top.

As another example, you may want to view the images at
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/moon/gallery/g_01.html
which is a gallery of nine images from Apollo 8. You can see the
shadow (sunrise / sunset) quite clearly on many of these. The shadow
goes roughly from "north" to "south" and from the images, the shadow
crosses almost horizontally in the first image and varies (if visible)
in each successive image. So the astronauts in taking these pictures
did not get "right side up" as you put it when taking all these
pictures.

For more information, you may want to search with phrases such as
earth image
earth image perspective
images earth site:nasa.gov
earthrise over moon
and similar phrases.

Answer 2

The short answer is that the pole can be in any direction. They would have to look at the pattern of continents and figure out where the north pole is.

The long answer is that there is no up or down in space, so there can be no "top" for the pole to be at. The direction we think of as down is just the direction that things fall, but in orbit, things don't fall. And on Earth, down is toward the center of the planet, not toward the south pole. In fact, if you are at the south pole and drop something, it will fall in a direction toward the north pole. Do not be confused by the map making convention that puts north at the top of the map. A globe is made to stand on the table with the north pole at the top, but that is just a rule we made up for globes. We could just as easily have decided south should be at the top of all maps and globes sitting on tables should have the south pole at the top. There is no physical "upness" about north or the north pole. This becomes clear if you look at a planet like Saturn through a telescope. Depending on where in the sky the planet is seen, and on which side of the telescope you stand, the planet can appear at any crazy angle in the eyepiece. It is a small taste of what you would experience in space looking back at Earth.

Answer 3

It depends on what angle they view the Earth from. As there is almost no gravity when a spacecraft orbits , it depends on how the astronaut is positioned as he or she looks out the viewport. (For an object to orbit a body, it must experience at least a little gravity, which keeps that object in orbit around that body, although this amount of gravity is virtually negligible.) In microgravity, essentially there is no top or bottom. Further, the spacecraft could be positioned any way. Its main viewport need not be in front; its wings need not be positioned like an airplanes; this is because there is no air in space, and therefore no friction. again, in space the concepts of top and bottom, front and back, left and right, lose much of their meaning.

Answer 4

Some interesting responses above.

I don't think you're understanding the question fully and I think it's quite interesting actually! I've never really thought about it.

I would assume - and this is just a guess - that there is no set orbit path that orbiting manned spacecraft will take around the earth so I think, with the earth also spinning on its axis - they would get a number of different views of the earth, not always with the poles at the top/bottom etc.

Answer 5

The only point where they could see the Earth in a north-south perspective is as their craft crosses the equator and IF they are looking in the proper direction.

This assumes you want them to see as much of each hemisphere as possible. If you just want them to see it with north being "up" and south "down", well, they just have to orient themselves in their craft so their view matches your expectations.

Answer 6

No quite often when u are on a long trip like to the moon ,they will put the capsule in rotisserie mode . Slowly turning this balances the capsule temperature. In the sun light it can be 350 deg F. in the shady side it can be -200 deg. F.

Answer 7

We always see a thing as we learn it, but even when relearning a thing it still is colored by previous learning. Look at this web site, to the end is an interesting concept of what is seen and what is not.
http://www.keelynet.com/2comb.htm
This will change your perception and really make you wonder. And please, spread it around.

Answer 8

The way we see the moon

Answer 9

see an image from a taken from a satellite......its exactly the same.....just add a small window

Answer 10

Depends which way their body is oriented in!