Hello.

I'm new here and have already perused a few tutorial here to create some wonderful surface/continent maps with PS (CS4).

But right now, I'd like to create star-maps and I'm stumped. I only own PS because I got it cheap via a student's license. But I'm now getting more and more into it and... Loving it. Loving the power and the capabilities.

And now I'm stepping in front of a huge blank: I want to prepare a map of a space-sector for a Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader (the new RPG, not the old hybrid).

I want something that would allow me to place around 35 stars of different hues and sizes and their names under/besides them onto a softly-gridded 2D area, yet still look like a star-map, not a land-map. So, dark background, some nebulae and such.

I simply don't know where to start.

If someone would have a tutorial or two, or simple a tip on which existing tutorials I could use to adapt (with changes in colour, perhaps) to space-use, I would be very, very thankful.

Thanks in advance, sincerely,
Matt