Spider web by night

I really wanted to take a picture of something outside at night but my camera was slightly lacking. I probably need to get a tripod since most of my photos were blurry and I can't help but think that some kind of zoom lens would be good for more distant objects but since I've got a compact rather than an SLR I probably can't get one to fit. Any advice is more than welcome!
In the end I took this shot of a spider web which came out quite nicely with the flash on. I'm not sure what all the white specs are in the background since the sky was clouded over so they can't be stars. Maybe the flash reflecting off the specs of water on the spider web?