Borrego Springs, California
The Desert at Night

I’d like to rest my heavy head tonight on a bed of California stars… I’d like to lay my weary bones tonight on a bed of California stars 🎶

I’d love to feel your hand touching mine and tell me why I must keep working on. Yes I’d give my life to lay my head tonight on a bed of California stars 🎶

Yes, in a dark sky region, all ready to stay up late shooting the stars. The first astro mission with my new camera base. Singing Wilco in my head the whole time…

Borrego Springs received its dark sky certification in 2018. Though the stars were bright and crisp, there was a lot of light oozing from the horizon most of my shoot. And many passing cars! And there were many other astrophotographers capturing the stars at the serpent.

This would be my home later. An extremely bare bones cabin in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. But I had no camping supplies–no lantern, no linens or sleeping bag, nothing! My bad. When the time came I did sleep on the tall bunk hardwood thinking that it’d be more resistant to the cold desert night. It was brutal. Paying my penance to the desert, to the wilderness…

• 

• 

This park had so much I didn’t get to explore. I really want to go back.

The serpent was a great foreground. As soon as I set up a nice fellow showed up. Then a older couple showed up. We all really meshed well and helped each other with shots. The older man gave me some technical tips and facilitated my first trial of light painting. It was odd, strangers together in the dark. But it was a wonderful strange…

Here is the light painted serpent. All it really is was the man shining a non-LED flashlight with a frosted coating onto the serpent’s face at the start of the exposure. So it illuminates the face without sacrificing the dark sky. It came out really neat! But notice all that light pollution!

After the couple left, the guy and I kept trying different things. I learned he was also a teacher from the East Coast! A science teacher from Massachusetts. Here I tried the light painting with my phone and there’s my mysterious astro friend.

The subtle Milky Way shows up… but that light! My new camera improved my pictures a great deal. Stars were much crisper then with my D5000. But I need to get into a much darker dark sky park. I’m talking to you, Utah!

🌌 🙂

Back at my campsite, I continued to shoot. There were so many stars in the sky! Here a passing car illuminates a cactus.

Later, when I moved into my car for sleeping, driving to the side of the state road to not bother other campers, I shot the moon. Just a tiny slither.

It was a great dark sky shoot and I continue to learn more. I’m looking forward to more dark sky travels in the summer. At the rate time is flying, I’ll be in the dark soon.