Attached Link: http://www.weirdass.net

Try rendering a standard bryce starfield at very high res. In a new scene file, create a sphere, make it the size of Bryce's local universe (ie- as large as you can make it), and hit the "m" for materials lab. Hit the triangle thingie for "2d texture" and import the star field you've just rendered. Set it to neither "cast, recieve, or selfshadow". Use the images own alpha transparency (BW value), and play around with diff, ambience etc. I'll also sometimes duplicate the star sphere and make the new one just a point or two smaller and apply a cloud texture to it for that galactic/hubble look. Mitch a variation of this technique is in tomorrows episode of The Starry Ones