Yep, no lie! 8 sec, ISO 3200, f1.7 is quite sufficient for these particular photos. f2.8 with a wider lens would work great as well, and I'm hoping to get some decent results even with the kit lens, but that's yet to be determined. And I'm just slightly more of an expert at astrophotography than you, by virtue of having taken these photos, and a few others in the past, and by reading a bit about the subject. The cool thing is how easy it is for anyone to take photos with this budget equipment, provided they have the same sky. Pick a good night, grab a tripod, open the lens wide up, point at the sky, and try different settings!
I wouldn't know how to describe the amount of light pollution where I live... there's a city about 30k away that lights up one horizon pretty well, and a town that brightens up the other horizon. There aren't enough houses close enough to have an immediate effect in my yard. Last night was unusually dark (for a brief period) because the moon wasn't visible. All these photos were taken pointed straight up because that's where the milky way was; I took others closer to the horizon and of course the number of stars dropped off. I can't tell you exactly where in the sky photo #1 was (I don't know the night sky very well at all). It's possible the yellow patch is a bit of cloud. If you can ID it please let me know!
Good suggestion, I'll look for that lens to see what it sells for. My 50mm was about $50 on ebay, a great lens for the price. A 28mm manual prime is not something I'm likely to put a lot of money into, but you never know...
For anyone who's interested, here is what the 2nd photo looked like straight out of the camera, before editing.