Yo! get a good flashlight that throws a good white beam and lightpaint shit like the dish array during ur long exposures. You can do a lot with a good flash unit too just poppin it off for effect.
So.... I went to do that that nite. Had my lite all that shit.
Get there, had my gun so wasn't too worried even though the coyotes were out. Loaded it up, set off into the desert.
Now with the vla, most of the surrounding area is ranch land with cows n very empty. The actual satellite field is partially in the ranch land. The dishes themselves are mobile, they use a railway system then atvs to move them into the fields, but this time they had them clustered back behind a fence with a big sign that said "NO TRESPASSING US GOVT PROPERTY, FEDERAL LAND" etc.
The shots I got were obtained after I hiked a mile around, hopped a cattle guard, scared some steers n definitely possibly went on somewhere I shouldn't have. I didn't wanna get in trouble so I kept my light off. Aiming those shots in the dark was interesting:l.
I may go to Marfa or Terlingua which is also dark af but u can go where ever n I've done light painting there so I will give it a shot again