View of the nose of the orbiter taken from the Mir space station

STS081-720-081 (12-22 Jan. 1997) --- As seen from Russia's Mir space station while docked to the Space Shuttle Atlantis, this scene provides a panorama of the central Atlantic coast of the United States. The view extends from the Chesapeake Bay at the top of the view to Charleston, South Carolina near the lower right corner. Heavy snow-cover on the Appalachian Mountains (on the left of the photo) contrasts with the darker piedmont. The dark piedmont, in turn, changes sharply in the center of the photo to the gray-colored coastal plain. Cape Hatteras, Cape Lookout and Cape Fear (top to bottom) mark the points along the North Carolina coast. Another boundary can be seen offshore. The clouds and the line of lighter-colored water off Cape Hatteras mark the western edge of the warm Gulf Stream which runs northward along the coast to Cape Hatteras before it shoots eastward across the Atlantic.