Reid Gower 'Natural Phenomena' Time Lapse Contrasts Nature Scenes, Cityscapes (VIDEO)

Shot over a six-month period, the globe-spanning footage in "Natural Phenomena" captures the majesty of rolling clouds, wandering stars and dazzling aurorae.

Filmmaker Reid Gower posted his completed time lapse, which features diverse locations like San Francisco, Las Vegas and Istanbul, to Reddit on Monday, where it rose to the top of the social news site's main video forum.

"Skyscrapers and spacecraft may seem unnatural, but they're just as much a part of the natural order as beaver dams and bird nests," Gower wrote in his Vimeo description of the video.

Some users on Reddit wondered about the video's amazing final shot, an astounding panorama taken from the edge of space. Gower explained that the shot was taken during an expedition to Alaska, in which he loaded a GoPro camera inside a thermal lunchbox and attached it and a GPS to a weather balloon.

Gower said that he filmed the time lapse-footage while travelling over the summer. "I only decided to shoot timelapse on a whim," he wrote on Reddit. "I had no experience or direction, [and was] just having fun and hoping I could weave something entertaining together."

Time-lapse videos often highlight the wonders of the natural world. Earlier this year, amateur astronomer Alex Cherney made a beautiful time lapse of the aurora australis, or southern lights.

In September, filmmakers Karen and Doug Urquhart made a time-lapse video of more than 25,000 photos of geysers, thermal pools and mountains taken on a trip to Iceland.

(via Reddit)