One of the most enjoyable parts of Santa's job must be to see the world from on high on Christmas Eve — but thanks to the astronauts on the International Space Station, we can get a similar view on video. Over the past year, the space station's night flights have produced some fantastic pictures of city lights and auroral displays. This video puts together some of the latest clips posted to NASA's Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth.

You're actually looking at five time-lapse clips, strung together for a west-to-east journey:

• The first five seconds are from a trip heading up the U.S. East Coast on Dec. 11, with bright city lights strung up all the way from Boston to New York to Philadelphia to Washington. You'll notice a green auroral glow in the upper left corner.

• The northern lights are the main attraction in the clip running from 0:05 to 0:25. This was the view looking north on Dec. 11 as the station was heading from Nova Scotia to northern Italy.

• Our virtual sleigh travels over Africa, Europe and Asia from 0:25 to 0:50, with the camera pointed toward the northeast. Among the sights from Dec. 4 are the Iberian Peninsula and north Africa, England and France, the Baltic Sea, Moscow and central Russia, and atmospheric airglow that gives way to the beginnings of sunrise in the east. Once again, there's a taste of northern lights in the upper left corner.

• The next clip, from 0:50 to 1:13, chronicles an Oct. 21 pass that begins at the coast of France and heads right across Europe. A couple of lightning flashes can be seen over Italy, then the space station makes its way across Turkey and onward to the Arabian Peninsula.

• My favorite part of the trip runs from 1:13 to the end, and takes in a swath of our planet from Central Asia to South Australia. This video was assembled from pictures taken during the space station's night flight on Oct. 29. Here's how the folks at NASA's Johnson Space Center describe the view:

"The video begins just northwest of the Tibetan Plateau, where the greenish glow is from airglow. The line separating the plateau and the city lights to the right of track are the Himalaya Mountains, with cities like New Delhi, Lahore, and Islamabad standing out. Continuing down track, one can spot the brightly lit city of Calcutta just right of track before flying over Burma and Thailand. Thailand's capital city, Bangkok, is the brightest-lit city in the video. The white lights of the city can be seen nearby the green and purple lights on the Gulf of Thailand, which are fishing boats and oil rigs. Once across the Gulf of Thailand, cities like Kuala Lumpur and Singapore stand out right of track before flying over the island of Java (long, thin island downtrack from Singapore). Near the end of the video the ISS flies southeast over Australia and lightning storms, and the Milky Way can be seen rising in the sky."

There's no soundtrack for the video, but feel free to play Christmas music in the background. You could fire up some "Space Age Santa Claus," or take a listen to the first live music broadcast from orbit: "Jingle Bells." Archive.org has the audio recording from 1965's Gemini 7/6 mission. The harmonica and jingling bells come in around 2:10 in the clip.

And now for something completely different: Check out this sleigh ride over Mars:

Looking for more night flyovers? Here's a sampling:

• 'Amazing' view of comet from space
• The best of NASA's night lights
• See the world from space ... in 60 seconds
• Fly over the southern lights in the space station

And if there's anything you've missed from the Cosmic Log Space Advent Calendar, here's your chance to catch up. We'll present our final image from the calendar on Christmas Day:

• The full Cosmic Log Space Advent Calendar
• Dec. 1: An ornament in outer space
• Dec. 2: The masses in Mecca
• Dec. 3: Santa's shrinking domain
• Dec. 4: The monster of Madagascar
• Dec. 5: Antarctica stripped naked
• Dec. 6: Streaking for home
• Dec. 7: Pearl Harbor from above, 1941-2011
• Dec. 8: The rise and fall of the Dead Sea
• Dec. 9: How an eclipse dims Earth
• Dec. 10: Psychedelic storm
• Dec. 11: Beauty of the Inland Sea
• Dec. 12: Drone-spotting stirs up debate
• Dec. 13: Light up your St. Lucy's Day
• Dec. 14: Satellite spots Chinese aircraft carrier
• Dec. 15: Hooray for Hollywood
• Dec. 16: Olympics under construction
• Dec. 17: Mystery in the Gobi Desert
• Dec. 18: Glow over Miami
• Dec. 19: North Korea's dark ages
• Dec. 20: Happy Hanukkah from space
• Dec. 21: Season's tiltings
• Dec. 22: Circle of power
• Dec. 23: North Pole revealed
• Hubble calendar, from The Atlantic's In Focus
• 2011 Zooniverse Advent calendar

Sylvain Serre

Sylvain Serre took this picture of the northern lights on Sept. 3 from the village of Ivujivik in Quebec.

Our planet has managed to dodge the potential ill effects from a string of solar storms over the past couple of weeks ... while still enjoying the wonders.

The region on the sun's disk known as sunspot 1283 has been spouting off with one flare after another, earning it the title of "Old Faithful" among solar physicists. Old Faithful has thrown off several coronal mass ejections, which are outbursts of solar particles that stream through the solar system at speeds of a million miles per hour. If a powerful outburst hits Earth's magnetic field were to hit just wrong, that could cause problems for satellite operations, communication links and electrical grids.

One of the most famous disruptions in recent times was the Hydro-Quebec blackout of 1989, caused by a huge disturbance in space weather. Back in 1859, an even bigger solar storm flashed through daylight skies and set telegraph wires sizzling. Some observers say such an event would blow out civilization's fuses if it happened today, but experts downplay the chances of seeing a solar doomsday anytime soon.

Solar activity is definitely on the upswing toward an expected maximum in 2013, but so far, we haven't seen any direct hits on the magnetosphere. Instead, we're seeing a series of glancing blows that have set off beautiful auroral displays in the upper atmosphere, like the show that photographer Sylvain Serre captured from northern Quebec on Sept. 3.

"For the first time of the season, there was a clear sky in the northern village of Ivujivik (the highest point in Quebec)," Serre wrote in a note to SpaceWeather.com. "So I went outside with a friend to take a little walk and to get more familiar with the landscape around here. Fortunately, the northern lights were very bright, dense and colorful."

For the camera buffs out there, Serre used a Canon EOS 5D Mark II with a 16-35mm lens set at f/2.8 and 4000 ISO, at exposures ranging from 10 to 25 seconds. Check out the SpaceWeather gallery or Serre's website for still more thrilling views of the northern lights.

Ron Garan / NASA via Twitpic

NASA astronaut snapped this picture of an auroral display from the International Space Station and sent it down to Earth via his Twitpic account on Monday.

For a completely different perspective on the aurora, feast your eyes on this view of the southern lights, as seen by NASA astronaut Ron Garan from the International Space Station over the weekend. The space station's Italian-built Leonardo storage module is visible in the foreground.

Garan has had the good fortune to see a wide range of glorious phenomena during his time in orbit — including the Perseid meteor shower, as viewed from above, and an astronaut's-eye view of Atlantis' historic descent to the last-ever space shuttle landing. He's been sharing these and other visual treats via his Twitpic account as well as his Fragile Oasis website.

Garan promises that better pictures of the aurora are "coming soon." But those pictures might have to wait until after he lands back on Earth on Friday aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. "I have thousands of pictures for Twitter when back from space," he wrote on Monday. "You've seen just the tip of the iceberg."

As a parting shot, here's the final installment of Garan's "Cupola Corner" video series with fellow NASA astronaut Mike Fossum:

More views of auroras and space sights:

• Northern lights caught on video
• From U.S. to Paris with the northern lights
• Familiar sights from alien heights
• Space station takes center stage
• Month in Space: Still more beautiful blasts

Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or adding me to your Google+ circle. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for other worlds. 

Thierry Legault / Astrophoto.fr

A three-image composite tracks the International Space Station and the shuttle Atlantis as they move across the sun's disk on July 15.

They look like alien bugs hopping across the sun, but these specks may represent the very last pictures of a space shuttle in orbit as seen from Earth.

French astrophotographer Thierry Legault, an expert in the technique of tracking spacecraft silhouettes, captured these views of the International Space Station and the shuttle Atlantis during their final rendezvous. Atlantis landed today, bringing the 30-year space shuttle program to an end.

The picture above is a composite, showing three views of the station-shuttle complex as it passed over the sun's disk on July 15. Legault had to travel to just the right location to get the shot. This one was taken from Caen in France. The entire transit took just seven-tenths of a second. Legault has labeled the shuttle and elements of the space station in this higher-resolution view:

Thierry Legault / Astrophoto.fr

The labels on this image point out the position of Atlantis and components of the International Space Station during a July 15 transit.

In an email, Legault told me that he traveled through the Czech Republic, Germany and the Netherlands to capture the silhouettes. One picture, snapped north of Prague and posted to Legault's website, shows the space station and the shuttle side by side, 50 minutes after Atlantis' undocking earlier this week.

Legault produced the piece de resistance today during a stopover near Emden, in northern Germany. It may not look quite as impressive as the others, but it could well be more historic. Legault wrote that the picture was taken "just 21 minutes before the deorbit burn, therefore there are chances that it is the very last image of a space shuttle in orbit."

Here's a composite of four images, taken during the 0.9-second-long transit. The silhouettes of Atlantis are highlighted within white circles:

Thierry Legault / Astrophoto.fr

A four-image composite tracks Atlantis' transit across the sun's disk, just 21 minutes before today's deorbit burn. The white circles highlight Atlantis.

For the telescope and camera buffs out there, Legault says the images were produced using a Takahashi TOA-150 6-inch apochromatic refractor (focal length 3600mm) on an EM-400 mount, with a Baader Herschel wedge. The camera is a Canon 5D Mark II, set for an exposure of 1/8000s, 100 ISO, working in continuous shooting at four frames per second. Transit forecasts were calculated by www.calsky.com.

Merci beaucoup to Thierry for sharing his pictures with us through the years.

More great views of Atlantis:

• Space station crew watches Atlantis descend
• Photographers capture Atlantis' last landing
• Southern lights are sweeter in space
• Aircraft captures unique view of launch 
• Shuttle Atlantis' last trek to liftoff 
• Atlantis' flight on PhotoBlog

Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page or following @b0yle on Twitter. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," Alan's book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

NASA file

A fish-eye view of the International Space Station, captured by NASA spacewalker Ron Garan, features the recently delivered Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer in the foreground. A Russian Progress cargo ship and a Soyuz crew capsule are docked on the left end of the station. The structure to the left of the AMS is a radiator. One of the station's gold-colored solar arrays is visible in the background. And off to the right, the shuttle Atlantis is docked to the station's Harmony node.

After the space shuttle Atlantis lands, the focus of the U.S. space program shifts to the International Space Station — so it’s fitting that NASA spacewalker Ron Garan took a moment to capture this eye-filling wide-angle view of the station at the end of this week’s final outing of the space shuttle era.

This wasn't the last spacewalk by any means. The 500-ton space station is as big as a football field and as roomy as a five-bedroom house, and it's going to need plenty of exterior upkeep over the next decade of operation. But it was the last opportunity for astronauts to take pictures of a space shuttle in outer space ... from outer space.

"Only one problem with this image — the tendency to make you stop whatever you're doing, stare at it, lose your concentration and drool uncontrollably," NBC News space analyst Jim Oberg says in an email. "At least that's how it affects me."

'Big deal' for space station science
It's also fitting that NASA has finally revealed how scientific experiments will be managed aboard the space station in the years ahead. Today the space agency announced it has selected a Florida-based nonprofit group known as the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, or CASIS, to take charge of research operations that use the U.S. portion of the space station as a national laboratory. The center will be located at the Space Life Sciences Laboratory, near NASA's Kennedy Space Center.

The U.S. segment of the space station was given national-lab status in 2005, and over the past few months, NASA has been evaluating potential partners for managing the lab operations. CASIS will be in charge of maximizing the station's research return for non-NASA applications — based on scientific peer review, analyses of the economic and technological value of potential projects, and the availability of funding. NASA said CASIS will also raise the station's profile as an educational platform.

The cooperative agreement initially will have a value of up to $15 million per year, NASA said in its news release.

"The space station is the centerpiece of NASA's human spaceflight activities, and it is truly an national asset," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden was quoted as saying. "This agreement helps us ensure the station will be available for broad, meaningful and sustained use."

CASIS is a consortium of organizations spearheaded by Space Florida. "CASIS is a perfect fit with the state's strategy to support the space, science and technology industries through strategic collaboration and partnerships," Florida Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll, the chair of Space Florida's board of directors, said in a statement. "By making the space environment more widely accessible to industrial and academic research, the ISS National Lab will help strengthen and diversify the U.S. economy and inspire the next generation."

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat who flew on the shuttle Columbia in 1986, said today's announcement was "a big deal."

"It's going to bring money, jobs and industry to diversify an area hard-hit by retirement of the shuttle program," Nelson said in a news release.

Breakthrough or multibillion-dollar bust?
The space station has long been criticized for providing less research value than scientists had hoped. We'll have to see if that criticism fades now that the station is out of its construction phase.

During a briefing conducted before Atlantis' launch, Mike Suffredini, NASA's space station program manager, said the initial goal was to devote 35 hours of the astronauts' time to research on a weekly basis, plus whatever they wanted to do during their off time. "We find that crews give quite a bit of their weekends to research," he said.

One of the space station's marquee science projects is a long-running investigation of how microgravity affects the virulence of pathogens such as the microbes that cause salmonella poisoning or MRSA. Scientists involved in the project, which could result in new vaccines, have an experiment aboard Atlantis for the last shuttle mission.

"We're close to some groundbreaking news here, so this could be a good one," Joe Delai, payload manager for Atlantis' STS-135 mission, told journalists.

It'd be nice if the post-shuttle era came to be remembered as a golden age for space station science — but what do you think? Is the station suited for science, or will it turn out to be a shiny $100 billion white elephant? Feel free to weigh in with your comments below. And while you're contemplating your comments, feast your eyes on these additional images from Tuesday's spacewalk:

NASA via Reuters

Spacewalker Ron Garan rides on the International Space Station's robotic arm as he transfers a failed pump module to the cargo bay of space shuttle Atlantis.

NASA via Getty Images

NASA spacewalker Mike Fossum takes a picture while attached to the International Space Station's robotic arm on Tuesday. California's Central Valley can be seen far below as a green swath running from left to right, with Mono Lake shining like a tiny blue jewel.

Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page or following @b0yle on Twitter. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," Alan's book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.