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I've done plenty of good shots with panasonic compacts (lx and fz ranges usually, some leica dlux). I have an fz1000 set up on tripod with a polarie currently.
do tests NOW, dont wait until The Night when you'll do everything wrong.
you need to be able to adjust focus manually and keep it locked. this might not be possible on your camera so find out, autofocus might work on the moon but nothing else. the stars are essentially the same distance for the purposes of a compact camera , so get infinite focus set on or off tripod on ANY part of the sky, try for bright stars or planets. I'm betting focus will be the biggest problem.
then set the widest aperture (f3.3) at shortest focal length (25mm?) and highest iso testing. set exposure time for approximately 500 divided by focal length (in this example 20sec) to get close to round stars. take test shot. look at pic, is it too noisy? reduce iso. are the stars streaking? reduce exposure time.
shots should be taken on tripod with a timer delay because you will blur the shot, remote trigger is handy. that should get you started but its YOU that has to do testing first, you start with a starting point of settings and refine until ready to take LOTS of shot to align and stack back home.
also check stellarium for time/location to see where the milky way will be positioned in the sky and wait for astronomical dark to take your shot sets.
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