So Long, Mister Sun

I forget how I found this link, but it goes to a live HD feed of the view of earth from the International Space Station. Every time I get a quick break, I click to see where it is. Alas, a lot of the time the screen is black, which means that the ISS is on the night side of Earth. Other times all I can see is cloud cover, but even that is fascinating. Who knew there were so many different types of cloud cover? Once I saw the Sahara desert, all red and ochre; other times I gaze at the blue, blue ocean.

Today, though, I saw something I'd never seen before - the sun setting behind Earth as the ISS flew over the southern tip of Africa and into the night over the Indian Ocean. It actually took me a moment to realize that the big light in sky was the sun and not just sunlight bouncing off the spacecraft! When I did, I quickly fired up my screen capture software and got these images.

I love the rays shooting out from the center; I'm guessing it's refracting (or something) off the lens. Astronomy people? Help?

 

You can see the reflection of the camera lens surrounding the sun. There are two separate cameras, one at the "front" and one at the "back" of the ISS. This is the rear-facing camera.

So long, Mister Sun; good night!