Were you using the special low light modes, where it takes multiple shots and blends them together?
Is that mode available for panoramas too?
Night exposures will often look better than the naked eye because you're accumulating a lot of light, even faint light, over a long period.
I took my first astro photos over Lake Tekapo last night. Took a bunch of 25-second exposures and a lot of stars I couldn't see with the naked eye show up.