An Out-of-this world View

RE-POSTED since original was in the days of missing posts, July 20-23.

I went for stroll today down the long boulevard of the International Space Station, thanks to Google Street View.  There were no park benches along the way but one just floats down the middle of the rectangular tunnel, looking around at all of the instrumentation.

I finally found the snack bar, complete with hot sauce.

I kept looking for portholes, because I’d heard of the great Nadir Window, mostly from the late Skyline resident Forbes Powell (Hello, Yvonne!) who invented the non-reflective coating for those windows, what makes ghost-free pictures possible.

Continuing down the long tunnel, I spotted the largest collection of telephoto lenses that I’ve ever seen. And there were four portholes in the floor.  But surely, I thought, despite all of those telephoto lenses, this is not the Great Nadir Window.

I continued exploring.  At one of the junctions where side alleys take off into dead-ends where space suits are stored, I turned right and, when I worked my way past a visual obstruction, I suddenly saw this, completely filling my view:

Not just a big round picture window but six side windows, as nice a bay-window arrangement as I’ve ever seen.  One just floats there, swiveling all around to see the Earth down there with its blue rim (the height of the atmosphere).

Can anyone identify that river at right?  It’s a reservoir in places, surrounded by dessert.

I found a picture of the cupola taken by a departing supply ship:

No need to sign up for a cruise.  Just explore for yourself.  Just tap one of the superimposed arrows to float that direction.  It helps to view via an iPad as one can simply tilt the iPad to look up and down.