When Ray gifted me a trip to NightScapers 2026 Conference, I knew it was going to be a great experience. We’ve been casually playing around with night photography for years and I thought this is a great time to get more serious about perfecting our craft.  Ray also just got a new ZWO Deep Space kit to try out.  So after day 2 of the conference, we decided to take the D750 and he Z6iii out to the back side of Shiprock and shoot a bit. We found a parking lot (trying to respect Navajo rules and customs) and sat up. 
I haven’t had a lot of frames run trhough the z6iii yet, so taking info we learned in some of the classes, we sat up and tried to get a few good shots, knowing we would not get Milky Way shots.

In spring, the MW does not show up well until between 2-4 am. If you know me, you know 2-4 am is NOT my best hours! However, since we are in the area(ish) in July, when MW center is visible at 10:25, we elected to wait to get that, and possibly book a guide then as well.  We shot until about 11 p.m. and while we got a few good shots, I was having issues with how the z6 handled the intervalometer settings, so my stacks are still not great.  #progressoverperfection.