Thanks for the feedback guys. I agree with Dvlenk6 about the basic star material. I plan to do more fine-tuning with it and see if I can get closer to the SOHO picture by using some of DCG's EnhanceC noise functions to mix the glow channel. I was just gratified to see how good of an image I could get using Carrara's "out-of-the-box" abilities in a mere 15 minutes. Your comments have me thinking that I'm on the right track. Now I'm thinking of doing a Nova animation. Fun stuff. :-)