Cape Town at Night

Around 11 PM local time on October 5, 2022, astronauts aboard the International Space Station took this photograph of Cape Town, often referred to as the “Mother City.” The pattern of the street grid dominates at night, providing a completely different set of visual features from those visible during the day.

The pattern of highways and streets dominates at night, providing a completely different set of visual features from those visible during the day. For example, the shape of the coastline from Cape Town to the Cape Peninsula to False Bay provides an identifiable shape to the region, but at night, Cape Peninsula has so few lights that it disappears, giving an entirely different appearance.

Cape Town city center is easily identifiable by the brightly lit docks of the port, while Table Mountain, which is so dramatic by day, shows up as an absence of light. Coastal roads between Fish Hoek and Gordon's Bay partially outline the shape of False Bay.

See https://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/SearchPhotos/photo.pl?mission=ISS068&roll=E&frame=11384