Moonlight on the ocean, city lights on land

Timelapse footage recorded by NASA from orbit shows banks of cloud over the ocean shining silver in the moonlight. As the station nears land, city lights begin to appear through gaps in the cloud.

In the final seconds the horizon brightens and the first light of sunrise wraps the edge of the atmosphere in a blue halo.

Because the station circles Earth roughly every 90 minutes, its crew can see many sunrises and sunsets in a single day.