Joshua Tree National Park, California, United States.

Just before sunrise in Joshua Tree National Park, Venus burns bright in the southeast, a morning star leading the way just before dawn. Above it, Antares, the heart of Scorpius, glows softly beside the stars of Sagittarius, its teapot shape seeming to pour starlight into the glowing center of the Milky Way. That bright band is our galaxy’s core, a river of light stretching across the desert sky. 

Below it, the land tells its own story. Wind has shaped these rocks and Joshua Trees for centuries, their twisted forms mirroring the stars above. In the stillness before daybreak, desert and sky feel inseparable and full of quiet connections.