Just in time for the holiday season, the European Space Agency has produced an amazing high definition time lapse  video of Earth from space that brilliantly showcases the holiday lights of cities all over the planet.

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In a span of five months, ESA astronanut Alexander Gerst took 12,500 photos and created an epic time lapse video of Earth in a glorious six minute video.

Beginning late May, Gerst spent some 166 days in orbit aboard the International Space Station. He's one of five flight engineers who are part of ESA's mission called Blue Dot.

Gerst apparently has an incredible eye for photography as he took photos of the planet from space as the ISS made its journey around Earth at 17,500 miles per hour and 15 orbits per day.

The video presents natural phenomena across the globe such as lightning and a myriad of weather patterns such as clouds, storms and low pressure areas in a unique perspective.

The Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis takes on an eerie emerald green glow across the northern hemisphere as it shrouds the Arctic. The horizon looks incredible from sunrise to sunset and the video show viewers an astronaut's perspective, separating Earth from the rest of the universe.

This video also takes a peek into the various scientific instruments that are part of the space station such as solar panels that rotate to catch sunlight. It also reveals a robotic arm that extends to a Cygnus spacecraft carrying supplies for the ISS.

Apart from being part of ESA's Blue Dot mission, Gerst also spent time as an engineer for Expeditions 40 and 41.

He left Earth on May 28 on a Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Gerst is also a geophysicist and a volcanologist. His main goal is to conduct physical science, biology, and human physiology experiments, including radiation research for the Blue Dot mission.

TagsWATCH: Amazing Time Lapse Video of Earth From Space Courtesy of ESA, ESA, ISS, earth time lapse video space ISS ESA, alexander gerst astronaut, blue dot ESA