July 10, 2019
This set of photos is part 1 of a two part set. This submission has shots from a trip to Zzyzx which is on the road to Las Vegas and a return to Joshua Tree.
Zzyzx
Anybody from LA who's driven to Las Vegas has seen the mysterious sign Zzyzx Rd. as you approach Baker, CA. There's actually a Zzyzx at the southern end of that road. It began as a "heath spa"(it was a sham worthy of a Trump) and was eventually closed down by the Feds. The buildings there are now the Desert Research Center of the Cal State University system(it's not affiliated with any campus). The Dark Sky Finder web site https://darksitefinder.com/maps/world.html#4/39.00/-98.00) shows Zzyzx as almost as dark as Amboy Crater and has a small lake, so I wanted to check it out. I also wanted to test out my latest addition to my camera collection, a Samsung Galaxy NX(it's an Android based camera). Madame and I headed out for what Google Maps said would be a 3 hour trip(2 1/2 hours and change without traffic), the trip ended up taking 4 hours. We arrived just after sunset and as it started to get dark we noticed a haze to the east. That haze was the stars and the band of the Milky Way starting to come into view with the fading sunlight. It was also very windy, so though I'd packed the sky tracker, I didn't think it'd work with the gusts of wind. I took a couple of test shots with the new(to me) camera and they looked good and then sent one to a fellow photographer since we had cell service(this would come back to haunt me). I took shots next to the lake(fisheye to the east with the new camera and wide angle to the southeast with my NX1).
Joshua Tree
After I sent my fellow photographer the picture, he wanted to go to Joshua Tree the next day. Madame thought this was madness, but the next afternoon I was driving off to Joshua Tree. As with the trip to Xyzzx, the drive took about 4 hours. We headed into the park and parked at the same place where we'd(my fellow photographer organizes the meetups) shot the Milky Way 2 years ago. I wanted to head there first to get some shots of the sunset. He wanted to shot at Arch Rock, so we took his car there and shot some pics and then shot at another location on the return to our central meeting place and my car.
Milky Way adjacent to Arch Rock.
After leaving the Ryan Mountain Trailhead, we took one car to Arch Rock(harder to get separated like we did last month) since parking was limited when we tried to shoot there last month. When we got to the road to the campground/parking the gate was closed. We parked in a wide place on the road and walked in, there was only one other car parked there. Once we arrived at Arch Rock there were a bunch of photographers already up on the ledge by the rock(photographers are like cockroaches, they come out in the dark). We stayed below the ledge and tried to shoot though the arch, but the view wasn't great and the galactic center wasn't lined up all that well. I decided to shoot an area just to the north of Arch Rock which I though looked pretty good. This time I remembered to shoot my shots in RAW, with the new(to me) camera.
