I peer through a high-powered telescope at the silvery white moon, full of pale grey craters, ridges, ejecta rays and lines formed by asteroids and comets smashing into its surface over millennia. Depending on the time of year, the Dubai night sky forms a canvas for the Milky Way, Sirius, Orion, and Canis Minor and Major, as well as Cassiopeia, which was used to find the all-important North Star.

“Cassiopeia was the signal for the Bedouin to start their night journeys, a symbol of guidance, protection and enduring connection to the desert,” explains Landsey. Tonight, even the moon’s luminosity can’t diminish the brightness of Saturn in the cloudless sky. Through the telescope, its rings are perfectly clear, like a high-resolution illustration.

As we gaze at the sky and listen to tales of antiquity, mythology and astronomy, I feel a connection to the lives of the Bedouin, who once sat around campfires telling their own stories at night. Beneath its glitz and glamour, Dubai’s deep connection with its desert heritage lives on. You just no longer need a map of the stars to navigate it.

How to get there

The Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve is a 45-minute drive from central Dubai.