Hi,
I am trying to render a sun ( star ) in space. But the results I am getting using a particle system are a bit disapointing… The sun appears transparent and quite fake - I can make it look slightly more realistic by adding a few hundred particles, but that is not really an option…
Does anyone know a good method to render a sun? I think I am approaching this wrong…
NiHal
Get a sun image from Nasa and put it on the screen. 
Images from NASA are royalty free and public domain.
To do bright suns well you need to use HDR rendering, or fake it and render a big glow or halo around it so it looks blindingly bright.
wrong link 
He just flipped the HREF and the label. Easy enough.
Would love to know this as well.
Currently the stars I do are created by a general algorithm of calculating the distance from the center of the star (creating a ball which get darker the farer out you go) and then considering the distance less considerable if near any 90 degrees or 45 degrees * n of circle considering from center.