Celestial scenes like this one of the Milky Way are getting rarer by the day. Light pollution overwhelms views of our galaxy for two-thirds of the population of the US and the majority of Europeans. But some "optically clean" oases where we can look at the stars unhindered do remain, called "Dark Sky Parks". This site in Canyonlands National Park in Utah is near one of them.

Image
© Bret Webster
The sky here appears much as it would have done 4000 years ago, when artists in the so-called Archaic civilisation are thought to have painted the ghost-like figures on the canyon walls. No other cultural artefacts have been found, suggesting the site, known as the Great Gallery, was not used for everyday living but for special religious ceremonies.

.