A View From High Above

This is a photograph taken from the space shuttle looking back down at earth. Specifically, this photograph shows mostly European countries. Obviously you can tell where it is day and where it is night. To familiarize yourself, the light brown (sandy)portion of the photo is the Sahara Desert. The green tip just above and to the left of the Sahara is Morocco. Just to the left of the Sahara at the bottom is the Canary Islands. Directly above Morocco is Spain and just to the left in the small patch of green is mainland Portugal. Now, surely you can find Italy (remember, looks like a boot). If you can't, it is right above the Sahara in the nightime portion of the picture. France is just above Spain and England is just above and to the left of France. Ireland is just to the left of England. Just above and to the left of Ireland you see a white circle in the middle daytime portion of the ocean...that's Iceland. Yes, the white is snow. The white up at the very top left of the screen is Greenland. The United States would be just below and to the left of Greenland, but unfortuantely the photo did not capture it. Now, for where we are in the Azores. Look in the very center of the ocean in the daytime, just to the left of mainland Portugal. Yep, that's us. There are actually 13 different small islands there. Small is the word; definitely puts our significance in perspective. Well, there was your geography lesson, see how many more countries you can identify. A larger and easier to see version of this photo has been placed in the gallery under the title "High Above." Incredible photo huh?

This website was last updated on 11 Sep 05.

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