Starry Starry Night

We planned an easy day northbound from Furnace Creek for our third day at Death Valley.  We scouted the 20 Mule Team Borax Mine exhibit while on our way to the dunes.  There, behind a wood rail fence, is a large wagon rig with a towed water tank.  This sits next to a building ruin from the old mine.  Our plan was to use this area later at night for some Milky Way photographs.  That's the sky type Milky Way and not the candy bar.

Borax Wagon

I used my celestial information app, Stellarium, to predict the location of the Milky Way Galaxy (MWG) at 9:00 p.m.  It told me that the Milky Way would be, in technical astronomical jargon, UP.  Yes, it would be UP, not angled UP, but Way UP.  Like almost straight overhead.  It is a good thing the MWG is huge.

Stellarium App Shows Location of Stars

We missed the hidden dirt road leaving the mine exhibit that would have taken us to Mustard Canyon.  This is a yellow mustard canyon and not the spicy brown variety we had been seeing.  We would have to save it for tomorrow.  On our way to Mesquite Flat Dunes.

The Dunes are just sand with a good collective bargaining agreement.  They do what they want, move when it pleases them and are responsible to no one.  We walked out on the dunes and I spent the next 24 hours trying get sand out of my socks and sneakers.  This is no ordinary sand but a nasty invasive variety.  Fun stuff.

Mesquite Flat Dunes

We went back to our room and had dinner at the Saloon.  I knew now to order the beer and not anything as complicated and technical as a scotch and soda.  Their Porter is actually good and now accompanies all meals except breakfast for me.  If Sue weren't here it might also work for breakfast.

Speaking of drinking, one of our best purchases was oddly a box wine.  It was wholly drinkable and, best of all, it fit our small portable cooler.  The Chardonnay also fit in the room refrigerator. The box holds the equivalent of 4 bottles of wine and has a spigot.  You are never sure how much you have had and, on vacation, that is a good thing.  No need for stoppers or corkscrews either.

Winner of 40 awards

We got our gear together for our night star shoot.  Tripods, cable releases, fresh batteries, flashlights and warm coats.  Back to the Borax exhibit.  We set up and found that a 30 sec. exposure at ISO 1600 worked well with a wide angle lens wide open.

Borax Wagon and Starry Night (click to enlarge)

I used our flashlight bounced off a nearby gray dirt mound to light paint the wagon in the foreground.  Sometimes I used the palm of my hand to reflect and bounce a bit of light.  It took some experimentation but just a few seconds of bounce during the 30 second exposure seemed to work best.  We folded our tripods at around 9 p.m.

The next morning we started late.  We drove out to the Rhyolite ghost town for a change of pace.  We stopped in the bustling town of Beatty where we topped up on some cheap Nevada gas.  Beatty has a small casino, a Subway and a 4-way stop sign.  With the exception of a few buildings downtown, most of the dwellings were trailers.  I think we spotted the mayor's double-wide on the top of a hill.

A backtrack of a few miles from town and we were on the main street of Rhyolite.  The town sprang up in 1905 and died in 1911.  Gold was discovered in 1905, 5,000 people flocked to the town, Charles Schwab invested heavily in the town's infrastructure, the Cook Bank was built, the HD & LD Porter General Store was built (1906), gold ran out, end of story.

Cook Bank Building

The new proprietor of the bank looks like most bank executives I have met over the years.  A bit of a low-life and a drab dresser.  He epitomizes bank executives everywhere.  I captured a brief portrait of him as he arrived for work at the Cook Bank.  His picture is below.  BTW, the Cook Bank is a wholly owned subsidiary of Bank of America.

Cook Bank Executive

 
The bank executive, Mr. Rattler, slithered into his office, which was basically a bush at the edge of the building.  As I headed back to his office (bush) with my GoPro for some video, a truck pulled up and a woman prepared to exit right at the bush.  Luckily, her husband saw me waving in his mirror and delayed her departure.   I let him know that he should move his truck ahead a few feet as there was a rattlesnake just outside his wife's door.  He contemplated his options for a moment, then two, and then finally decided to pull ahead.  Good choice.  Way too many people saw me warn him.

Tomorrow, off to the Valley of Fire and Overton, Nevada.