Hallo everybody,
we need a very helpful tutorial about OUTER SPACE (in MAYA) . Every people had once tried to create Planet Earth or a space scene with starships, planets and sky star!
I suggest to create this tutorial (Course) focus above all to...:

Hoe to set a right 3D planet Mass? Above all which Scale? Polygon 's sphere or Nurbs Sphere? How many Subdivisions? Which kind of texture?

HOW to create a credible Skystar backdrop?

HOW to create a credible planet with 3d Atmosphere (Earth, Mars, ...)

HOW to create night city lights?

How to create a credible 3D clouds to allow Camera zooming into Earth without 2d cloudscprojection effect.... ? (For planet Earth)

HOW to light Outerspace scene or environment?

HOW to preserve parallax effect in a scene with many planets?

Scale distant planets from Camera or have them all in real size ?

What about rendering in this situation.

I hope you appreciate my suggestion.

Many Thanks!