From left, Cheyenne, Fort Collins, Greeley, Boulder, Denver and Colorado Springs. (Shane Kimbrough/NASA)

Astronaut Shane Kimbrough apparently knows his Front Range geography. He snapped the image above from 249 miles high in orbit, capturing Colorados greater metro area, andtweeted it this morning. (Well, morning for us, who knows what time for him. Space time.)

Scroll on for more.

Astronaut photography has become a very popular thing lately. Often enough, they use consumer SLR cameras with long telephoto lenses. Its wild to me that the power of consumer electronics can deliver these images. (If I could get just get to space, my Canon could do this!)

Its kind of like amusician on stage calling out to people from different cities. I see you, Greeley, but I cant hear you.

Next up is my personal favorite space snapshot of the Denver-Boulder area. This one was taken from the ISS on Jan. 31, 2008 on a Nikon D1, a camera you could buy today for about $140.

I like this one because, like the Blue Dot image, it captures most of our little lives in one image. I also like that its blurred and distorted in some parts, giving the impression that it really was taken by some folks just casually flying by in space.

Of course, unmanned cameras have also captured our fine metro from space, too. Check out the time-lapse images we compiled last year from satellite imagery.

Also, this one doesnt include Denver, but man is it a view:

And for more on space shooting technique, in case you end up there:

Andrew Kenney writes about public spaces, Denver phenomena and whatever else. He previously worked for six years as a reporter at The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C. His most prized possession is his collection of bizarre voicemail. Leave him one at 303-502-2803, or email akenney@denverite.com. View all posts by Andrew Kenney

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Colorado from space: International Space Station astronaut captures the Front Range - Denverite (blog)