Indeed a very nice article, with superb photos and tips. When I was living in Oman, it was a lot easier to get really dark skies and no light polution, either in the mountains or the deserts. Here in Portugal, it is not so easy, but I will no doubt give it a try one of these days.
But it was more fun with slide film, kind of more unpredictable results, with typical exposures of 4-6 hours! I have just included one of my experiments from Oman, nothing special.