(http://www.freewebs.com/happyhobo/screen1.GIF)
Here's a space background. I would like c+c to make it better.
i would like to be the first person to reply with "LENS FLAER!!!11!!1!"
now on to the real suggestions...
maybe a few more brighter stars or less of the dark ones, maybe also a few smaller planets around the sun with moons, and perhaps a nebula/gas cloud, maybe also a halo or glow around the sun, right now it kinda just looks like a yellow blob, and also maybe an ozone layer for that planet, also a bit of space debris might help liven it up.
also, how did you make that starfield? it kinda looks like you've used a noise filter, a good way to create them is to start off with a white background and go over it in black with a large airbrush tool...
apart from that it's really nice
I like what you've done with the stars in the background. It is a very good first step for this tutorial:
Capturing Heaven (http://gallery.artofgregmartin.com/tuts_arts/making_a_star_field.html)
and for the planets:
Realistic Planet (http://gallery.artofgregmartin.com/tuts_arts/making_a_planet.html)
His tutorials are both very good and easy to follow step by step.
The fact that you've tried to capture the bright planets light source in the far right planet surface shows that you've put some thought in your work, which is very good.
I hope that the tutorials help you improve even more.
Good luck.
Those are cool tutorials...
But the capturing heaven tutorial skips a few crucial steps at the end :)
It goes from pretty nice to incredible with a "and then I messed around with it a bit" stage.
Steve