I am out in the desert waiting for the sun to set and hoping it would stay clear for the Milky Way to appear in several hours. According to my charts, the Milky Way should move into a good composition position around 4am. It is 10pm and getting colder. Joshua Tree National Park is a designated Dark Sky Site. That means there is less light pollution than in a city where the lights are so bright the stars are washed out and made invisible. You also choose a night when there is a new moon, meaning it is not reflecting sunlight back to earth. As you can see the sunset was red, red. The stars were starting to show up. You always get more stars captured by your sensor than your eye can see. It becomes a delicate dance between the intensity of the stars vs. noise when you play with the image later. And yes, I made it until about 5am when the skies started to lighten for daybreak. I was tired, but it was worth the wait and cold.