This magnificent picture of Chester and its surrounding areas was tweeted by British astronaut Tim Peake from the International Space Station - more than 200 miles above our heads.

The wonderful image has been retweeted more than 1,500 times and also shows, in amazing clarity, parts of Cheshire, Wirral and Liverpool, as well as the snow-capped mountains of North Wales.

You can see the sandy bays of the Dee and Mersey estuaries, and other lush green parts of the region.

Peake's picture homes in on the Welsh hills, which he used to climb when he was a British Army Air Corps officer. But Chester and Liverpool are also clearly visible in the top right area of the image.

The 43-year-old rocketed up to the space station in December last year and has carried out two spacewalks while orbiting the Earth.

Since then, the dad-of-two has used his Twitter account ( @astro_timpeake ) to post many stunning images from across the globe including beautiful views of the Northern Lights along the top of our planet.