I HAVE LIVED IN northern New Mexico for the better part of the past two decades, in part because the night skies are reliably clear and dark more nights than not, even close to the smaller cities like Santa Fe and Taos. To complement the stellar night skies, Taos and northern New Mexico is a fascinating geologic region where the high desert converges with high-alpine volcanic mountains along the planet’s second largest rift valley. Here is a collection of a few of my favorite night sky shots and the backstory behind my process.