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Step 1:  Create a blank 800px by 600px document and fill the background with a solid black colour. Create a new transparent layer on top and, using the Elliptical Marquee Tool, draw a circle around 2/3 the size of the layer whilst holding down the shift key (this will give you a classic circle with equal proportions).   Now make sure you have the top layer active and choose Edit > Fill from the menu.  Fill the circle with black.  Do NOT lose your selection until after step 5.

Step 2:  Grab the airbrush-activated Brush Tool and set the size to around 300px, with an opacity of 30%, & mode set to 'linear dodge'.   Change the foreground colour swatch to #3D6629 (a light green), and airbrush inside the circle until your image resembles the one on the left.  This makes it look like the light source is coming from the upper left.

Step 3: Load up this texture and define it as a pattern by selecting Edit > Define pattern from the main menu. Name it whatever you want.  When this is done, go back to your planet document, select the Brush Tool, and set the exact same settings we used for the airbrush in step 2.

Click on the 'brushes' tab within Photoshop and duplicate the same settings as those on the left.  The texture you select should be the one you've just added to the program.  Now, repeat the brush motions that we used to define our basic sphere, only this time we're adding texture to the planet.

NB.  Please note that the 'brushes' tab may be in different places depending on your version of Photoshop and OS.  If in doubt, consult your manual.

Step 4: Now we're going to make our planet round with Photoshop's spherize filter.

Go to Filter > Distort > Spherize, set it to 100%, and click OK. Just for good measure, repeat this action for an additional 50%, it should look like the image opposite.  Resembles a planet much better now, doesn't it?

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