Canadian astronaut Commander Chris Hadfield has returned to earth after taking some photos of our planet, including one of Dover, from the International Space Station.

Cmdr Hadfield, who is 53, spent five months on board the space station, and he used some of his time to take photos and post them on Twitter. He even recorded a version of the David Bowie hit Space Oddity.

His tweets describing the views from the space station have been described as a performance for a global audience.

California’s wine country was “a favourite place on Earth”, Australia’s Outback “agonisingly beautiful”, the Greek islands were a picture of “delicate, shattered eggshell” and he described a picture of the moon rising over a bed of cloud as “a constant reminder to us all of what can be achieved”.

The photo of Dover clearly shows the harbour, the castle and much of the town, particularly the valleys leading off the Dour valley through the town. The tracks taken by ferries and other ships in the Channel are also visible.