Is that a 180 or 360 degree shot? The Milkyway shouldn’t look like a rainbow shape, so something’s up with that photo. Neat photo none the less, personally, I think it have more life with color, but then again, it is of Death Valley… 
Cool stuff,
-Eric
Click on the photo for the answer to your question.
The photo doesn’t even come close to how magnificent a true dark
sky looks like. Its hard to believe that starlight can actually become
overwhelmingly bright, but that’s how it feels to view the Milky Way
with no moon.
djm
For two years I lived in a remote desert area not very far from the mountain where Kitt Peak National Observatory is located SW of Tucson, Arizona. I can remember the moonless night skies when you could see the Milky Way in its dazzling spendor.
beautiful 
Indeed
To date, Denny, this is absolutely one of the most spellbinding images that you have posted here.
Thanks oodles and oodles!!! 
Sad really. That’s the kind of thing that everybody should be able to see in their backyards on moonless nights.
I want my dark sky back dangit.
Yeah, here in the city, you could count all the visible stars and it wouldn’t be too difficult. I doubt there’s more then a 100 visible stars here in the city. And yet a 30 mile trip northwest into the open desert and the skies start looking like the photo Denny posted above. It is sad. And I’m positive it’s from light pollution mainly, but I’m sure car pollution isn’t helping either. I go fishing all night during the hot summer so as to avoid the heat of the day and also catch some big catfish or carp at night, at a lake out of town by about 50 miles, you can look at back towards the city, and see this huge glow in the sky. Look the opposite direction, pitch black, minus the stars and planets of course. That glow in the sky, just keeps getting bigger every summer… 
You can see the glow of Las Vegas from Death Valley now. The sky is no longer dark there. It’s truly sad.
Go over the hump into Panamint Valley and the sky is a bit darker, but you still have light pollution from Trona and Ridgecrest. But it’s just a small smudge on the horizon. Not a big smudge on the horizon like 'Vegas.