Cities at Night, an Orbital Tour Around the World

[ericdomite]

WOW

[1985jimmyb]

Saudi arabia looks like a fat man drifting. Or is it just me?

[Ladin0]

Narrated by Vigil.

[knowpassword]

not much left of the real world is there..

[livinintwilightzone]

So beautiful!!

[DSoler9]

Madrid!!

[clem3146]

damn they've forgotten Chicago, Barcelona and Paris :/

[ayersman96]

8:56 =)



[tombeeni]

The fabled Alice springs?

[ify1001]

Those lights, to me, represent that of cancer. In order for those lights to be produced, other animals are pushed away and nature essentially leaves. Leaving a land only inhabital by people... until they are gone

[jessellanos787]

@ify1001 why in every video i see there is an asshole who just makes me up set with there negative bullshit its a beautiful sight if you dont want to see it just dont watch it

[ify1001]

@jessellanos787 We all have different interpretations as to what a video means. to me, that is what I saw. It doesn't mean I did not enjoy watching it. Why in every video is there someone who gets upset at someones comment?

[jessellanos787]

@ify1001 well toshay lol but i get your point we are destroying the world its a fact fuck the government

[punishedexistence]

Notice Cleveland isn't on here....because that would look like a giant butthole squatting over a toilet from space...Seriously though that was really insightful and cool looking. Just like the little circuitboards that compose this giant machine. Pretty cool.

[FPInvention]

That gave me goosebumps lol. Really nice

[MrBuckwilliam]

very nice :)

[KelSnoopy]

Moscow and Saint-Petersburg is very nice from cosmos… so sad they aren't in this video :(

[Zork1915]

@KelSnoopy Yeah I wonder why Moscow isnt in this video. I once flew over moscow at night with aeroflot, its a very beautiful but HUGE city and at night you can really see how really really big it is!!

[meteor4163]

The experience of being in space must be really mind blowing. Rotating around the whole planet every 90 minutes, seeing what all of humanity cultures have built on the most beautiful planet ever witnessed, the lack of gravity the whole time, being in a limited pressurized space, etc. It's hard to imagine how does all that feel like for a moment, let alone being in these conditions for several months non-stop.

[plumbersteve]

hello from st. louis...which apparently doesn't rate.

[archman1967]

Hello from Montreal!!!!!!!

[ToasterOnix]

Where is Russia??????????????????

[GodOfReptiles]

Cities at Night, narrated by Stephen Hawking.

[chrisconwaypeters]

meat puppetry 101

[judgegixxer]

I live in the bush and I saw my campfire in this video.

[subent]

Karachi from space at night, wow wow wow.

[tekiiroamor]

wow i never knew mpls mn was actually that big . i go to school in at the U downtown and compared to my town in new york id say its smaller but you can actually see this city .. and from what i see mpls is actually one of the bigger cities. this absloutley beautiful . traveling is one thing i want to do.

[Cumulonimbus82]

Can it be seen in google earth someday?

[7elmig]

Fabulous.

[radashevskiy]

wth they included bend, or but not seattle, not even portland!

[alphakristjan]

This is wonderful , the narrator sounds sort of nerdy , but damn , hes still my friend !

[livinintwilightzone]

@alphakristjan I like him too! ^_^

[mySalerno]

woow... zurich is the first on the list... ;-))

[archman1967]

@mySalerno No......... it's Montreal!!

[davehowellman]

Does anyone know how I can find a clear image of Norwich, UK? I'm guessing their isn't one yet?

[BBT1099]

great lakes region would have been nice to see.

[AlbiEmoStatic]

Thanks .

Great video

[CSjag19]

MONTREAL!!YAY:D

[astronomer83]

Good video - also, the technique used to take the picture is clever -- the same astronomers use to take images of the sky for long integration times; but honestly, I think the video could go without the coment on Las Vegas.

[darpa322]

Cities at night may very well be one of the most beautiful unintentional concequences of humanity..amazing..

[loggeronline]

Amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!­!!!!!

[ProgressingMedia]

NYC is at 01min 40 sec - you can clearly see Manhattan !!! Actually I am from Europe but I see it.

[marchingbanddude]

houston was the best one!!!!!

[4yall]

8:13 M I A M I, FLORIDA!!!!! My home..

[XxSkittledropXx]

No Toronto or New York City?!?

I do think its a great sight but you did leave out some places out

[kostolomac222]

amazing

[hunthurd4]

No NYC, Chicago or Paris, but an amazing video none the less!!!!

[mexmax101]

It's amazing how the border citys of us and Mex coapurate together to share the same resorces there all like twin sisters it's almost like they melt together and make one big city they don't care aboute borders they just want to live together like tijuana- sandiego metropulate area juarez- el paso Mexicali- calexico ladero-nuevoladero and so on

[TechnomancerMorhion]

That was beautiful.

[SrLFO]

Juarez, El Paso are #1

[MrMaz80]

4:53 My home town KARACHI.

[pipomenas]

Karachi is f^&*^& shit man, like a dumpyard

[MrMaz80]

4:53 My home town KARACHI..

[Akzimo]

No mainland china cities - :(

Still cool though

PEACE

[ReeD3601]

TOKYO #1!!!

no offense but what's with this guy's voice? hahaha! his pronounciation of kyushyu and fukuoka make me laf. haha!

[BiGdigGa98]

what the hell i watch 7 minutes for ten seconds of australia?! wheres melbourne? good job nasa!

[rajio]

Thanks so much for posting, beautiful images, thanks again.

[wurzelwaerk]

Technically interesting, but it makes me angry only, there is no beauty.

For me it's called LIGHTPOLLUTION!

It's more of a scourge of humanity than a beacon.

What about the beauty of a dark starry nightsky?

[TheSebulba1978]

perhaps in the middle ages....keep up with technology

[gippi86]

nice video!

[cobolt13]

And with one button i can destroy it all

[holz93]

las vegas WOO!

[vadimfistikan]

MOSCOW #1

[JBArrazola]

4:59 my hometown MANILA wuhuuuuuuu

[CikPaperTrAiL]

8:07!!! BABY! SAN Francisco!!

[itsalicia09]

8:53 SAN DIEGO USA BABY!!!!

[itsalicia09]

USA f****  yeah

[ajaaronjoe]

London Rules yayyyyy

[HHHdahman]

@ajaaronjoe

Having no lights is better, you can see STARS!!!

[stvnbyakugan]

any from australia???

[bigjoeknew]

there was

[m2qt2bstr8]

04:48 manila, philippines

[sketgrood]

Brisbane @ 6.20 - there's a lot of lights there !

Continuous strip all the way down to Cape Byron.

[gersom85]

I like to see how is Guatemala City in the night you have the image of satellite... please!!!

[djlthe1]

those were great views!! at night. may need to add those images to google earth 5.0.... just a thought.....

[mapscraper]

agree

[sithicent]

great video :)

[Jm4nu3l]

CARACAS - VENEZUELA????????

[iodine333]

No Moscow? LAME!

[TheofanisVarnavas]

2:18 ATHENS, GREECE

[overwlf]

o rly?

[mmm1494]

im from montreal

yay

[jvandervalk]

WTF!!!!!!!!! No Toronto!!!!!!!!

[mapscraper]

If u look into

05:18 (Hong Kong),

it's indeed the brightest amongst all.

and the lights actually frames out the coastlines of Hong Kong 'cuz the houses are built alone the seaside lowlands while the central darkhole is mountainous country parks.

[SmokeyGoodness]

The central "darkhole" is Victoria harbor.

[firefatkid]

wow i like this but the guy talking is so annoying they needed someone else talking.

[damr666]

el paso and ciudad juarez, cool

[Devil9h]

he was not even in Europe whtf this aint all over the worl.

[suetonius1]

london you nutter ;-)

[msenteza]

Zurich, Madrid, Milan, Athens, Antwerp...did you miss all those ?

[acgs0813]

São Paulo, Brasil...

VIVA !!!  \o

[carambola08]

Well, what is what?

[kpear59]

Its so awesome how you can see patterns

really good video.

[allieversayiswat]

wat

[kevmccln]

Very cool video. Nicely done and great idea!

[agusamadeus]

do you like avenues? visit Buenos Aires

[1991amerimex]

ja! did not visit ARGENTINA jajaja!! viva Mexico y ESTADOS UNIDOS!! Y SAO PAULO!!

[1991amerimex]

yes viva Mexico,U.S and Brazil everybody has the right to express themselves how they want nasty argentinan "person" only visited important nations which where all except arg...whatever thats called

[lawman593]

very cool.

[Raphy717]

Wow thank you very much. Those astronauts must be the luckiest people in the world, I've always wondered what it must truly be like to look down on the earth at night. Once again thank you.

By the way, why is it that Japan has the distinct green colored lighting over it?

[kpear59]

He mumbled something about mercury vapour lighting at 6.53 when he was talking about Brazil, might be the same for Japan?

[selecktta]

amazing!:)

[boohbah666]

he forgot new york... how the hell can you not show new york?  bastard...

[lkidkyle1985]

actually he did you mo mo

[rochelimit55555]

so peaceful

[nemosti]

Houston 08:32

[nemosti]

you can actually see the freeways that suround Houston..wow thats amazing!

[Cumulonimbus82]

Wow, will they attach it to Google earth someday??

[riolindasucks]

Got to love the simplicity and brilliance of the US cities. The grid system makes for the easiest big cities to navigate through. The three most impressive are Chicago, Phoenix and Las Vegas but most major US cities use the grid system to a large extent and are interrupted only by bodies of water and mountains. The first city shown in this video with the title is Chicago.

[BTuna1]

You havent been to many cities in the southeast then. Atlanta and Charlotte are a mess . .

[riolindasucks]

Yeah the SE is a mess but compared to anywhere else, North America is very grid oriented. LA, NYC, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Toronto, Calgary, Vegas and Phoenix. Melbourne, Vic is Grid like as well in Oz. Europe and Asia are really messy.

[CULAVE]

riolindasucks- True Europe is more spontaneous. The new town of Milton Keynes (pop- 200,000)is the only British settlement I know with a grid-like design.

[riolindasucks]

Where is that by? London or a midland city.

[CULAVE]

Its about 80 miles nw of London in the county of Buckinghamshire. Ive never actually been myself but ive seen maps of the place. Its unusual for a British town in that its very new (the vast bulk was built from the 1950s onwards) There were several 'new towns' constructed around already existing villages both due to overpopulation in cities like London, Birmingham and Glasgow and war damage. Theres a new town near where I live called Washington, built around the village of that name (pop 60k)

[riolindasucks]

I just looked at it from Google earth and yeah, it is not quite as straight as Chicago or Phoenix, but by European standards definitely grid-like.

[riolindasucks]

I see you're from Birmingham. I'm from Chicago which is America's second city. Third in population now but best skyline on earth. I'm of course slightly bias, but Chicago is amazing and much better than Los Angeles.

[CULAVE]

riolindasucks- Small world isn't it! Yes I think Birmingham and Chicago are twinned for that reason. In the UK there is also a debate if Birmingham is really the second city because Manchester has a lot of influence- but its only half the size by population- most people would go for 'Brum'

Chicago definately has a better skyline than LA- though I think LA sprawls out more? Would I be right in saying Chicago has a clear 'downtown' whereas LA is an amalgamation of cities with no clear centre?

[riolindasucks]

LA both city proper does spread out more and contains 3.9 million people including a metro area of 13 million. There is a clear downtown. Right where Interstates 5 and 10 intersect. In google earth look for the shadows that the tall buildings cast and you can see. Chicago, meanwhile, has 2.9 million people city proper and a metro of 9.6 million. Chicago is much easier to travel through for 3 reasons: More grid roads, less congestion on freeways and more public transit. Much better center too!

[CULAVE]

riolindasucks- ah, im with you- I do have quite an interest in urban demographics; would you say settlements in the Chicagoland metro area ie Hammond, Des Plaines, Elmhurst etc have individual identities or they just feel like Chicago suburbs? Some places that are not part of Birmingham but in the Birmingham metro (West Midlands) lack individual identity, ie West Bromwich- although 143,000 people live there its impossible to know where it begins or ends or even if it has a clear town centre.

[wimpie25]

Most European capitals like Paris, Brussels or London are constructed with straight lines in Mind too. But in a way to impress, wide and long avenues leave from big roundabouts clockwise in every direction. They reconnect with other roundabouts.

They did that to impress other nations.

Paris is the best example of that.

Those European capitals are all "victory cities."

[CULAVE]

wimpie25- I know what you mean, but they tend to be like spider webs as opposed to chart grid formations.

[wimpie25]

I know, because of the of the roundabouts and roads radiating in every direction.

There's on Belgian city that's constructed according to a grid pattern too. It's called Leopoldsburg.

[Johnny7250]

Sao Paulo at 06:49

[mapscraper]

among all the cities shown, 01:39 (NY), 05:26 (HK), 06:08 (tokyo), 06:16 and 09:01 are the most impressive, and HK is the brightest, no wonder HK is crowned as Pearl of the Orient!

[IKiss99]

I have complain mapscraper and his website to the Hong Kong, Chinese, Japanese and Taiwanese police

If you see his comments complain to youtube admins or email me

[mapscraper]

among all the cities shown, 01:39(NY),

05:26(HK),06:08(tokyo),06:16 and 09:01 are the most impressive, and HK is the brightest, no wonder HK is crowned as Pearl of the Orient!

[mapscraper]

we dont see hong kong, shenzhen and canton as a unity, because hong kong is different enough and qualitified (either geographically, culturally or economically) to be an entity.

[greenw23]

Ya right....

Then why is Hong Kong loaning money from China?

Since we are "gays" "culturally inferior"?

And you are "economic center" of Asia

[mapscraper]

hk donates and invest in china and chinese

spend and invest in hk, its fair trade, never say loaning as u wld never say japan loaning money to china, ignorant and arrogant ppl!

[forza88abod]

God, its really big earth...

[mapscraper]

NY > London > Hong Kong > Tokyo > Paris

NY - biggest and grandest city , one of the two true global cities

London - geographically center of the globe, origin of many world standards, another one of the two true global cities

[Hughdapu]

mapscraper- dude im living the london dream too.. but geographically centre of the globe? i think the geographical centre of the globes probs molten lava not london, n its only us english tht put the uk in the middle of our world maps. so there..

[mapscraper]

Hong Kong - Busiest city , best skyline and one of the world's three best harbors, niche global city , economically center of asia

Tokyo - modernest and most complicated city ,

niche global city , economical and technological giant

Paris - most cultural city , center of Europe , niche global city

[greenw23]

Posted by mapscrapper (who call us gays and is a very traditional and cultural being)

"Hong Kong - Busiest city , best skyline and one of the world's three best harbors, niche global city , economically center of asia"

Things I don't agree:

HK is the economic center of asia (Looks like Tokyo, Shanghai really have to step a side)

Hong Kong has best skyline (One word: Bullshyt)

HK is the busiest city (Ya right...)

HK is one of the world's best three harbours (Amsterdam, Lushun, SG)

[nenegardencityistheb]

u lier!i didnt see it!

[tazeenhasan]

Please nominate Pammakule Turkey for seven wonders of the world

[Eyliusevil]

SPACE STATION!

[Linkage1992]

100

[ipersalvo]

The idea of Las Vegas being "the beacon of humanity" is really quite depressing.

[911Lithium911]

Technology is great and all, but it can be so damaging to the Earth. Our once natural, beautiful planet is now just one big ball of computers. It's hard to explain, but I hope you know what I mean. Look how crowded these cities are...they even have people living in rainforests! What will happen when the world can't supply enough water, food, fuel, etc, to all these people?!

[alexkarcher]

Just a correction: that's not Sao Paulo city's coast, the supposed coast part is actually another city, called Santos.

[joshuakiehl]

As above so below.. After I finish this video I'm going compare them with hubble pics of galaxies. Thanks for the inspiration!

[markjamesbmouth]

Love this London looks well cool, plus you can see my home town bournemouth as well.

[LondonForever75]

I know what you mean. When the London picture was shown I could see my town where Im from really easy. Amazing!

[Janaida]

Do you have any pictures of Planet Earth

[Grego95100]

Where are the clouds?

[makabaerli]

Well, of course they only shot those pictures when no clouds were there! Otherwise you wouldn't be able to see anything or at least not clearly enough.

[cmarcallen]

Wow, so the Las Vegas strip is the brightest observable landmark on earth. Very interesting!

[wickeand000]

sounds like John McCain

[alen209]

if you look at North korea at night and compare to to south you will laugh and say democracy owns

[niknah]

Oil well fires in kuwait? This must be old.

[7boon]

No it isn't. Oil wells burn the methane as waste gas. A real shame.

[georgH]

This video is simply incredible, with an excel·lent narration and music.

I like the part in Luxor where he says «where the valley of the kings is peacefully dark». I think this could well be the lyrics of a Rhapsody of Fire song ;)

[kioisursktitoeiru]

olot of makor cities missing

[chenxue88]

Las Vegas is not the beacon of humanity. That's just silly! Don't game your life away!

[MEXICANJOKER45]

woow they should take a video

instead of pictures

[maverickem09]

I'd like to get full resolution pictures of these. Does anyone know if they are available?

[riklehr]

They showed the Bigest City of the world (Mexico City) very small.

[bapt7859]

where is Paris ? :D

je trouve qu'il y a quelque chose d'émouvant dans ce film je sais pas pourquoi

[Leo92112]

New video about capital cities of Europe:

Capital cities of Europa Bratislava, Paris, London, Vienna, Warsaw...

Please comments

[LifeisnotFairooBad]

Wow. This guy just can't learn how to read out loud, can he? Quite annoying.

[georgH]

I think he is speaking find, his tone matches perfectly the images and the music.

[georgH]

He is speaking right, his tone matches perfectly the images and the music.

[deadgent]

amazing video. another proof of our fractal nature

[skinboy8]

Las Vegas is a beacon for humanity? Man, that's ironic!

[Leo92112]

New video:

UFO, Bratislava, Skyscrapesrs, Towers

[besselfunctions]

It's amazing how much electricity goes into lighting the underside of the ISS from Earth.

[cosgarcia]

Finaly i see it, THX

[Jarek4]

wtf is wrong with this vid?! who gives a crap bout bend, oregon! there's nothing in bend but a few houses. why didn't they just show portland

[robinhawk]

love it!

I've seen those posters of the world at night, but this is much more beautiful!

[hellohellomike]

What the hell is wrong with this guy? Please tell me this isn't really an astronaut. If he can't handle reading out loud, I find it hard to believe he can handle, you know, space shuttles.

[maverickem09]

Speaking well on a video is strikingly different to motor functions. Not to mention the fact that he himself probably didn't fly whatever vessel he took to space.

[SanctimonialisSol]

i dont have a problem with understanding him. And my english is worse since im german... so... i dunno, maybe you should just calm down some and turn it louder. lol.