Originally Posted by Peoriaman1

Quoted for emphasis. I had the same conversation with another photographer recently about shooting the Milky Way. Its easy to get a generic photo of the sky but one with a good foreground really makes the photo a winner.

Unfortunately, I rarely see either the Northern Lights of the Milky Way around here due to light pollution. I've seen the Lights exactly twice - one here in Illinois just by luck and once in North Dakota twenty years ago. I tried to get photos but what I thought might be enough exposure, turned out to be not. This was on Kodachrome 64.

I do a lot of night shooting under the full moon; typically two to four minutes long. I highly recommend a good sturdy tripod as nighttime is often windy. Bring along a rubber band or tape or something to secure the camera strap so it doesn't flap around in the wind and shake the camera. Yes, be aware where infinity focus is; your autofocus lenses usually will focus past infinity and if you shoot with it that way everything in the picture will be out of focus.

One more tip: Bring along reading glasses. First thing that happened to me as I got older, I couldn't see clearly in dim light. Its frustrating trying to zoom into a picture on the camera's monitor and not be able to tell if its sharp or not due to bad eyesight. Your mileage may vary. Have fun!