3D modeling thread #2 - re-render

[classicdrogn]

So, I'm thinking about how to do an optical effect for FTL transition, more "submerge into a pocket universe, return to a different point" than the "zoom off at high speed" of Trek or Star Wars, and the basic concept is to have the starfield spread out, lots at the center and little around the perimeter, then shrink and/or crossfade out the ship before returning the starfield to normal. The ship part is easy, but the only way I can think of to do the starfield is to make a bunch of little star objects and manually animate them, which would be a colossal hassle and probably extremely difficult to integrate any kind of nebula particle system into the shot let alone using Hubble photos as backdrops or something. Anyone have a better idea?

edit: Note that I'm working in Blender, so any tools specific to other software may or may not be applicable.