After the sun falls behind the mountains I sit
on the dunes and try to see if I can spot the instant that the lights in
the night sky became visible. I look to where I know Venus will appear and
watch the spot intently. The deep blue of the twilight sky seem to saturate
my eyes and I look away for a moment at the light of the setting sun breaking
through the mountain peaks and when I look back Venus is there; but it must have
already been and I had blocked its light from my perception of the blue. Next I
look for Vega, then I find Altair and Arcturus. The handle of the big dipper
appears and I guess the location of Polaris. Deneb finally appears overhead and
I follow the neck of the swan all the way down to Sagittarius.
The wind keeps changing
direction, blowing warm from the south and cool from the west. Suddenly the
gusts become sustained and the sand starts to bury my bag and my tripod tips
over. I quickly pack everything and stuff my camera into my shirt because it
isn’t worth opening my bag and letting it fill with sand. The last glow of the
sun is gone and what looks like a large dune distant is actually right in front
of me and I stumble up the hill and over. I put my hat over my face to shield
it from the sand as the wind continues to gust; the sky is so dark that it doesn’t
do much good to look ahead anyway. I know that my car is in the direction of a
saddle shaped peak in the mountains ahead but this doesn’t help when I’m down in
the pit on the leeward side of the big dunes and all I can see is the smooth
black crescent slicing into the milky way. I know that it was roughly
south-south-west and use Polaris to get my bearings as I climb the slip face of
the big dune.
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