The Star Wall After Dark

By day the screen around the pool is a plain wall of dark steel with the Endless Summer sign standing above it. After dark it becomes the thing guests photograph most. The panels are perforated with hundreds of small round holes and a scatter of four-point stars, and at night the light behind them comes through every opening, so the pattern shows as hundreds of points of warm light against the dark metal.

Where to see it

The best view is from the gravel in front of the pool, with the barrel cacti and the boulder in the foreground and the sign above. On a clear night the real stars sit over the top of it. You can also see it from inside: the soaking tub looks straight out at the glowing panels through its window, which is the view in our tub dispatch.

How it photographs

Use the half hour after sunset if you want colour in the sky and the panels lit at the same time. Later in the night the sky goes black and the wall becomes the whole picture, which is its own look. Turn off your phone's flash; the wall gives you all the light you need, and a flash flattens it.

The rest of the yard at night

The wall is part of a lot that is lit for the evening: uplights on the cacti, the phone booth glowing from inside, the fire pit, and the Stargaze sign at the far end. See the after-dark section of the gallery for the full set, or read about the pool and hot tub the wall wraps around.