I missed the opportunity of star gazing during my recent trip to Kashmir due to cloud covers during the nights. So, this was something i really wanted to do and got a chance to join a group on the weekend.
Me and my friend Hussam joined the star gazers' group at a shopping center near main highway just before sunset.
We left the place for the desert after sunset. The convoy was around 10 vehicles and the chosen location for the night was 93 km from my home. It took us an hour to reach there.
The area is called Al Salmi Desert and is near Saudi border. We went 23 km inside the desert to go as far away from city and road lights as much possible.
Officially, the session was about Star Trails but since this was my first experience so i did bit of both galaxy shots and star trails.
We reached the selected spot around 7:45 p.m. and left at 1:15 a.m.
The moonset was around 9:37 p.m. and after that the sky got quite dark.
There were small clouds floating around the place which sometimes disturbed the long exposures. And, the biggest part of the galaxy was still below the horizon when we left around 1 a.m. It was supposed to be out between 2-3 a.m. but it was getting really cold in the desert so we decided to leave.
The plan is already there for next month's new moon when we will do the time lapse of galaxy In Sha Allah 
Enjoy the pics now !!!
