>>2870999On the technical side, go for a lens wider than a 50mm if available so that you can expose for longer without introducing star trails.
Light pollution is a total bitch to work with.
I'm sure you can get more out of your photo, how are you post-processing it? Are you shooting RAW?
Use whatever is around you as part of your composition, it doesn't look good when it's just a couple of cropped treetops.
Also resize your pictures.