Looking for stars - first time trying night sky photography

The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff.
We are a way for the universe to know itself“
Carl Sagan.

This is one of my favorite citations by Carl Sagan and has accompanied me through the last years. Even though I have studied astrophysics, I only really experience that there is this huge and beautiful universe out there when I go observing (for fun, because for work it is another matter 😜). I have been to several observation nights with friends. You can imagine such a night like this: you make an appointment with a few friends, check the weather forecast and the moon, and then you need either a friend who has a portable telescope or you go to a student observatory