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