Here is a picture that uses the nighttime earth image featured a couple of
days ago on the Astronomy Picture of the Day web page. The image can be
downloaded now at:

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0011/earthlights_dmsp_big.jpg



Below is the simple code I used to generate it. Pretty basic, but it makes a
nice picture, and a good background screen.

// Persistence of Vision Ray Tracer Scene Description File
#version 3.1

#include "colors.inc"

global_settings {
  assumed_gamma 1.0
}

camera {
  location  <0.0, 3.5, -3.0>
  direction 1.5*z
  right     4/3*x
  look_at   <0.0, 1.0,  0.0>
}

background { color Black }

light_source {
  0*x
  color White
  translate <-8, 3, 30>
}

sphere {
  <0, 0, 0>
  0.5
  texture {
    finish {
      ambient 0.7
      diffuse 0.9
    }
    pigment {
      image_map {
        png "earthlights_dmsp_big.png"
        map_type 1
        interpolate 2
      }
    }
  }
  rotate <0,-140,0>
  scale 2
  translate <0,1,0>
}

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Attachments:
Download 'earth.jpg' (17 KB)

Preview of image 'earth.jpg'