That's a real SLR you have there... complete with auto mode as well as the usual manual, shutter priority, and aperture priority. Everything you need.
For night photos, it depends if you're taking something moving or still. If it's still, your best bet is to use a tripod. Unfortunately, it looks like your Maxxum doesn't take a remote shutter release, which is too bad. You probably have some sort of a timer, though (ideally a short 2-second timer), which will help take care of any shake caused by you pressing the shutter button. Anyway, once you have a tripod, you can generally get a nice photo of anything at night with any film as long as it's standing still.
For moving things, you need a fast film - the higher the ISO number, the faster it is. 1600 speed is twice as sensitive to light as 800 speed, so you can cut your shutter speed in half.
A fast lens can help, too. I'm not real familiar with Minolta's lens offerings, but there's a couple Minolta/Sony (the new Sony DSLRs are basically updated Minoltas) DSLR users here who know more than I about such things. But something like a 50mm F1.4 or F1.8 is probably affordable and good quality and will help tremendously in low light.
I think your numbers on the short zoom lens aren't right, though - it's probably more like 3.5-5.6 or so. The important numbers are after the "1:" on the front of lens. Like, "1:5.6" indicates F5.6.
It sounds like your lenses are probably fairly simple, but your camera is certainly capable!
