As a suggestion, you might look at how the ISDB (Internet Stellar Database) sets up their pages as far as a template might go. The "template" I use is similar to theirs, but geared specifically towards personal use. You could also look at a few gaming systems (Space Masters from GURPS, if it is still around), Traveler or the MechWarrior/Battletech systems.

A few extra things you might want to consider, particularly for those that don't have any kind of astronomy background, is that some stars are simply not suited towards the development of life or sustaining it for great lengths of time. This comes from their size, temperatures, luminosity and lifespans. And those stars that can develop and/or sustain life (short of terraforming) have specific regions in which life can exist, assuming carbon based life forms.

A few good links;

ISDB - http://www.stellar-database.com/
Zoom Astronomy - http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/astronomy/
All Experts - http://en.allexperts.com/e/a/as/ (scroll down to the astronomy selections)
Cosmobrain - http://www.cosmobrain.com/index.html

Also, you might want to check into Astrosynthesis from NBOS. Icos mentioned Viewingdale, but I'm not familiar with it, so can't speak on its capabilities. I have/do use Astrosynthesis, however, and it can be handy for generating large numbers of stars (with their children) fairly quickly.

Oh, and one last thing you might want to look at is WinStarGen. I've found it to be invaluable when trying to get more detail about the planets orbiting a star. ( http://www.eldacur.com/~brons/NerdCo...n/StarGen.html )

GW