From Space: Florida at Night

These photos were taken by NASA astronaut Douglas H. Wheelock on Nov. 1, 2010.

It is a picture of the Southeastern United States at night with the state of Florida taking front stage.

Wheelock is currently orbiting Earth on the International Space Station (ISS) as a member of the Soyuz TMA-19 spacecraft and commander of the Expedition 25 crew.

As the ISS orbits, Wheelock has taken numerous snapshots of the blue and green planet, including cities and famous landmarks that dot the sphere.

He is uploading his individual photos onto his personal Twitter page via twitpic.com. All of these images are courtesy of NASA, Wheelock and twitpic.com.

Here's a close-up view of the Interstate 4 corridor that stretches from Tampa to Orlando and ends by running into I-95 near Daytona Beach, Florida.

You can clearly see the "dark" waters of Tampa Bay and the bridges connecting St. Petersburg to Tampa at the bottom of the image.  Also quite visible is the Sunshine Skyway Bridge connecting St. Petersburg to the Palmetto and Bradenton areas of west-central Florida.

Working your way to the top of the image and following I-4 west to east, you can pick out the city lights of Lakeland, Orlando (and its extensive coverage of surrounding cities) and finally Daytona Beach along the Florida Atlantic Coast.

By the way, at the top right of the image is the Space Coast, including Titusville and Cape Canaveral.