Borrego Stars

From the photographer: “During the pre-dawn hours the Milky Way arched over one of many impressive metal sculptures scattered around the desert community of Borrego Springs, California. With a summertime population of far less than 3,000 and surrounded by a thousand square miles of the Anza-Borrego Desert, our community doesn’t produce much light pollution and enjoys one of the darkest skies in Southern California. But on this night and morning, the power to all of town was out, making it even darker than normal. The word borrego, by the way, is Spanish for bighorn sheep which inhabit the hills around town and frequently can be seen at watering holes in the canyons.”