Calcutta, India

Lying along the Hooghly river, Calcutta has over 4 million inhabitants. The Hooghly river shows as a black winding line in this picture that was taken from the International Space Station at night. Calcutta’s centre lies on the Eastern bank of the Hooghly river, with human activity following the river up to the North.

Other features that can be seen at night are the main roads and infrastructure around the city. The 117 road leads South to the Bay of Bengal. The three bridges that cross the Hooghly river can be seen as bars of lights. The Northern-most bridge leads to Calcutta international airport, Netaji Subhash Airport or Dum Dum Airport.

This image was taken with the Nightpod camera-stand that tracks the movement of Earth passing under the International Space Station at 28 800 km/h, keeping any target fixed in the middle of the viewfinder. Standard cameras fixed to Nightpod can take pictures with longer exposure times so astronauts can take sharper pictures of cities at night.