One Night in Death Valley

My Recent Adventure

I just returned from an awesome flying adventure with the equally awesome Jessica Ambats. Naturally, it was a blast. But also a revelation! I’m going to do a major post about the trip… but wanted to share this simple image from an evening just a few nights ago in Death Valley. I loved the color block effect and the crisp lines of the moon that night.

The Astronomers

We had just gone out to shoot photos of the plane at sunset… which was over so fast! The same night, the Astronomer’s Club of Las Vegas was having their bi-annual “Star Party”. You might well wonder what that is. We sure did! But basically, they all drive up from Vegas with their huge, honkin’ telescopes and with great glee (not kidding about that!), look at the stars. Some do it all night.

The public is welcome to these events and it IS a sight to see! We got to see Jupiter and it’s 4 moons, our moon up REAL close (amazing!!), Mercury and a few other faraway heavenly bodies. And this was before it was completely dark. Of course, the astronomers were excited to see through their telescopes… all Jessica and I wanted to do was take pictures of what we saw through them! Ha!

I turned around at one point and saw the simple lines of the sunset, about to fade and captured this image. It seemed fitting somehow, standing there amongst the astronomers.