The crew of the International Space Station captured images

of Wednesday's total solar eclipse as they witnessed the spectacle from

their unique vantage point 230 miles (370 kilometers) above Earth. NASA also transmitted video of the eclipse from the station on its NASA TV Video File.

ISS Expedition 12 commander Bill McArthur and flight engineer Valery Tokarev used cameras mounted outside the 200-ton orbiting laboratory to record video images at about 5:50 a.m. Eastern Time, as the eclipse passed over Turkey. They then took still photos as the station passed over Lebanon.

Meanwhile Russian commander Pavel Vinogradov and American flight engineer Jeff Williams, along with Brazil's first astronaut, Marcos Pontes, are awaiting their launch early Thursday morning, local time, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Pontes will visit the station briefly, before returning home with McArthur and Tokarev on April 8.