Just beautiful Kim Sue! The earth looks very realistic and the stars are wonderful. I like it the way it is now, but will still be interested in seeing your finished product as well.

Good work in this creation. Nice composition and lighting effects. The banding of the space layer could be smoothed out for a more even appearance. Maybe scatter the stars around a bit more or reduce the number.

On the note of the banding, discovered a rather easy way (in Photoshop) to mitigate it's visual presence:

Remove gradient banding without using noise or blur in photoshop (<-- To the point.)

Gradation banding remedies? (<-- More in-depth discussion and other possible approaches.)

And it's kind of weird, just how geometrical the banding here in your photo appears.. particularly in the central portion (to the left of your planet).


Stars:

Create A Starry Night Sky In Photoshop

Think the above would work for your creation here. I like the 'randomness' the technique produces.


Other creative suggestions/food for thought..

Me?

I would definitely add another celestial body in the left-hand side, at the bare minimum, and aside from a re-entering space capsule. Create more depth, as well as.. add some more visual interest/balance to your piece overall.


As presented to us?

Very nice work in progress.

Look forward to seeing the end results. :o)

Thanks all the advice. The gradation banding comes from using the gradient mesh tool in Illustrator. The space background was created in Adobe Illustrator, and the Earth in Photoshop.

I forgot to mention.. very nice work on the planet Earth itself.

Very nice work. :o)