Alrighty, so I'm back in front of my laptop and as promised a little "how to" on night photography. And a quick photo edit from this weekend's trips is below as well. As for the photo, it all depends on what lens and camera you're using. The wider the aperture the better. Ideally you want to sit at 1.8 or 1.4, but a 2.8 aperture works just fine. I have even done some at 3.2. After that you want to set your ISO somewhere between 2000-6400. Then you want to setup on a tripod and expose your image anywhere between 15-27 seconds. So you'll need a tripod and an intervalometer to get exact exposure times if your camera doesn't allow it. The most important part is your lens and tripod, you won't be able to do the shot hand held. Let me know if you have any questions I'll be more than happy to help!
Oh and as to what time to shoot, it depends, you want to go on a night when the moon sets really early or isn't visible at all. The Milky Way will be up by the horizon around 3am -4am in the spring and as it gets later into the year it shows up earlier. I use an app called PhotoPills to track it.