I use particles create an omni emitter set the rate to about 5000 set the max distance to about 810 set the min distance to about 800 (for the min and max distance you can set them much higher, but remember to adjust the clipping distanc of the camera) set the speed to 0 Then you just hit play until you have enought particles when you have enough, press stop, select the particles and in the dynamics menu set go to Solvers -> Initial State -> Set for selected go back to beginning of the timerange and delete the emitter. You would then have to go into the particles attribute editor and adjust give the stars more random color/size/brightness render the stars as a seperate layer and add a slight glow in post-production