Watch this beautiful orbital sunrise over the Earth in these images from the International Space Station

It’s a sight that few people can see with their own eyes: the sun rising above the curvature of the Earth. NASA has released a spectacular series of images of an orbital sunrise from the International Space Station (ISS).

The images were taken as the ISS was 262 miles above the Pacific ocean, starting over Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula and finishing up over the Aleutian Islands.

The 5 images begin with the sun behind the Earth, illuminating just the curve (yep it really is round!). The next in the series shows the jewel of sun flare, as the sun rises, and continues until the Earth is fully illuminated with the sun out of shot.

NASA hasn’t said which astronaut took the images, however, like most of the photos taken from the ISS they were taken with a Nikon D4 with a 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 lens.

The camera settings used are different for each image, as you might expect. The first images were taken at f/7.1, ISO 1250, and a shutter speed of 1/60 second. By the end of the series, the settings are f/18, ISO 400, and a shutter speed of 1/1,250 second.

We’ve been lucky to see some outstanding images from the ISS over the last couple of years. Several of the astronauts have excelled in their photography, most notably French astronaut Thomas Pesquet who has given us some incredible glimpses of the views from space.