there are just three sphere's..one inside the other,each slightly smaller than the one before it,all parented together in poser and saved as a prop the smallest one is the planet itself. it gets the main colour map and it's complimentary bump map the next one is slightly larger and gets the cloud map and it's transparency map[think i also stuck the trans map in the bump slot] the third is slightly bigger still and is just a solid light blue in both the object and ambient slots without any maps.transparency max at 100%,min at around 35%,and a low "transparency falloff" setting in the mat editor..which makes it clear towards the center and blue as it approaches the edges..shadow casting is off for this sphere... the sphere's themselves are just that,sphere's. allthough they come from 3dsmax and have more segments than the poser defaults,and are a fair bit more round because of it,you could just as easily use the ones that come with poser or from any other program,allthough close up's might look a little "chunkier" than this one with the poser defaults :)