After I took this video, I settled down to watch the stars come out. The skies are massive out here, there's no light pollution becasue the nearest towns are so far away. About the only familiar constellation I could identify was the big dipper/plough, but the sheer volume of stars is pretty mind blowing. Usually there's too much crap in the atmosphere to pick out much, but when there's so little cloud, it's pretty much a straight line for those ancient photons to hit the back of your eyeballs. The Milky Way is clearly visible as well. As we're edge on to the galaxy, looking through it from the rim of the spiral arm we're in means the sheer density of stars gives a cloudy effect. My poor old Panasonic Lumix FT2
Up on the crest of the dune it's very peaceful. It takes about 2 hours for the last of the sun's light to completely vanish from the sky so it's an unhurried process. I was lying flat on my back looking directly up into the stars and enjoying the gradual change in the velvety black night and deepening violet of sundown. So relaxing in fact that I dropped off and fell asleep, waking suddenly at about 2 in the morning.
