This one is short and sweet! If you want to shoot images of the Milky Way, you need to go when the time is right. For the norther hemisphere this is between March and October. Additionally, you want the darkest sky you can and a big light source that can mess with that is a city or the moon. You want to be at least 100 miles from any major city, especially one that is south of you (in the northern hemisphere), and shoot on a new moon or within 5 days of a new moon. You can also see if the moon in the area you want to shoot is rising or setting during the time you are shooting but if you aim for a new moon, this will help the most. Shooting the Milky Way isn't hard if you do the work before and figure out the best times to shoot!