My wife and I, joined by my sister and her husband, went to Ft. Davis, Texas (deep in the boonies of west Texas) to see the area and photograph the Milky Way. We also wanted to see McDonald Observatory, a professional observatory complex nearby.

It was a fine trip, except (predictably) it was VERY hot during the day. On the first night, we went to a field adjacent to our rental house, that had an excellent view of where the Milky Way would be (Photo Pills is very useful!), set up after dark, and fired away. We got excellent results.

We spent the next day at McDonald Observatory, getting a very nice tour of several of the telescopes. We had hoped to be able to come back that night without cameras to photograph the Milky Way with a big dome in the picture, but they made it clear that the only place we could photograph from after dark would be the parking lot, which would be full of cars that evening, from people attending the star party.

But we went back to attend the star party, which was fun. No Milky Way photography, though.

The next day, we scouted out places a bit out of town, which would have interesting things in the foreground. We settled on Davis Mountains State Park, which had some interesting structures that we felt would add character to a night shot. We had fun, taking a lot of photos, then went back to the ranch.

And we all flew home the next day.

The four distinct photos I took:

Ft. Davis, Texas

Davis Mountains State Park, Texas

Davis Mountains State Park, Texas

M31 From Davis Mountains State Park, Texas

 

For higher-resolution images, and associated information about each image, click on the small picture.

All images copyright Mark de Regt, 2026