ABOVE: With two visiting Russian spacecraft docked outside, the International Space Station passes over the Hawaiian Islands in 2010.
When scientists aboard the International Space Station aren't conducting experiments in microgravity, cosmic radiation or whatnot, they sometimes float over to an observation port to take pictures of Earth. At an altitude of around 250 miles, the ISS offers an extraordinary vantage point, one that flies over meteors, travels through the Northern Lights and comes with sixteen sunrises and sunsets per day. When the station's orbital path crosses the mid-North Pacific Ocean, the astronaut—photographers might suddenly find themselves at Hawaii's ultimate scenic lookout—but only briefly: Zipping along at 17,500 miles per hour, they have to get their looks in quickly, before they're suddenly over North or South America.
Hawaii can catch glimpses of the space station, too. When sunlight reflects from its acre of solar panels, it becomes the third-brightest object in the sky, after the sun and the moon. It looks like a very high-flying aircraft, with no blinking lights, making a beeline across the sky. It's easiest to spot around dusk or dawn. Various smartphone apps enable you to track it, or you can sign up at NASA's "Spot the Station" website for text or e-mail alerts at spotthestation.nasa.govOpens external link to page that may not meet accessibility guidelines.
From the edge of space, Mauna Kea's immense height (13,803 feet) appears flattened, while its craters are thrown into relief by the angle of the sun.
Urban Honolulu wraps around the base of Leahi (Diamond Head). The Hawaiian Dictionary relates a saying about the iconic landmark, "Nani Leahi, he maka no kahiki" (Beautiful Leahi, a thing to see for those from afar). It's an adage as applicable to astronauts in orbit as to sailors at sea.
Situated between Kaneohe Bay (at top) and Kailua Bay (at bottom), Mokapu peninsula once served as a secluded meeting place for Hawaiian chiefs. Now it's home to Marine Corps Base Hawaii. A swampy area of old fish ponds and salt flats separates the military base from civilian suburbs. Ulupau crater bulges from the peninsula into the deep blue sea at the far right of the image.
The deep, green folds of Mauna Kahalawai (the West Maui Mountains) grade into the dry plains of central Maui. The town of Waikapu and part of Wailuku appear at top, Maalaea Small Boat Harbor is at the lower right and rows of wind turbines can be seen at the bottom of the frame.
From space, some of the more noticeable features at Honolulu's Daniel K. Inouye International Airport include the 2.2-mile-long Reef Runway, the world's first runway built entirely offshore, and the US military's eighteen-hole Mamala Bay Golf Course, which isn't nearly as conspicuous from the ground.
Old lava flows radiate like streaks of paint from Mokuaweoweo, the summit caldera of Mauna Loa on Hawaii Island. The six-hundred-foot-deep caldera takes its name from a big-eyed, fiery red fish—the aweoweo. The Mauna Loa Observatory climate monitoring station at the end of its threadlike access road is seen at right.
Millions of years ago, the atoll of Kanemilohai (French Frigate Shoals) was a full-fledged volcanic island. Time has reduced it to a handful of lava-rock pinnacles and sandy islets scattered about an eighteen-mile-long lagoon fringed by coral reef—the eventual fate of the inhabited Hawaiian Islands. It lies 550 miles northwest of Honolulu in the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument.
The lights of Oahu outline its shape and reveal how its population is distributed. Most of Hawaii's 1.4 million residents live there, concentrated in the brightest areas. Seen from the ISS, Honolulu's city lights, filtered through Earth's atmosphere, twinkle like stars. But actual stars seen from the ISS don't twinkle at all, as there's no atmosphere to distort their light.
A 2022 eruption of Kilauea volcano sends vog—volcanic smog-swirling off Hawaii Island's South Point as it moves westward. Prevailing northeasterly trade winds keep vog away from neighboring islands. But when the winds blow from the south, hazy skies, scratchy throats and red eyes spread across the island chain. The oblique angle in this photograph helps highlight the haze.
