August 12, 2026 was to be the Milky Way core vertically on the horizon, a new moon, the Perseid meteor shower, and an eclipse on another side of the world.

As luck would have it, sunset beauty was obscured with dark storm clouds.  Waiting through blue hour in hopes of a clear sky earned me small rain shower.  I conceded to just enjoying the experience of lying on top of the 600ft sand dune in peace and tranquility.

I had started to make my way down three hours later when I noticed a break in the sky.  It took me eight minutes to capture all of this.

In the distance are meteor shower seekers - people from all over the world who planned on sleeping on the dunes under the stars for the night.

I saw quite a few meteors at the end of my night but did not manage to capture any in the photos.  That's alright.  I had settled for nothing originally.  This is a win for me.  I really like this photo.  Good memories anchored to photos you take also make you biased.