Here is one of my favorite shots from our Mayberry Galactic Flight on June 5th. The altitude is estimated to be 103,000 feet. It appears as if the flight is above an ocean with all the blue below. Not so. Just as we see blue skies when looking up into the atmosphere, we also see the blue of the atmosphere when looking down from a high altitude. In reality, below are the farm fields of western Minnesota -- mostly corn standing a few inches tall. You might also note the deep blue boundary at the horizon. This is the troposphere, the first six miles of the atmosphere where all of the Earth's weather occurs. From 20 miles up, the band appears thin.
