Everyone has an opinion on how to do night photography. Below we take that activity and parse it out into its nuts and bolts.
Pre-night - Plan for takng photos during a celestial event. Meteor storms (see our calendars), milky way appearances, solar or lunar eclipses, cometary passes, satellite skips, something. Use photo pills to determine the whens and wheres of the event. Where is the galactic center at what time? How does the milky way frame what you want to take photos of?
Pre-night - Determine the right place to take photos. Take a spin by a few places to figure out how they will fit into the event you've chosen. Or remember places from hikes. Remember to look for interesting foregrounds like dead trees, puddles/creeks/lakes, or craggy rocks.
NIght-of - Dress warmly and then bring extra warm cloths. Bring hand warmer heater technology. Eschew the non-reuseable variety of heaters for sake of the environment.
More to come later. Just wait for it....