Hey crawlerbasher! Your planet image looks really nice...but.. I think you've got the lighting wrong. If you look at the buildings and objects in the photo and where the light hits and shadows fall, you've actually got it doing the opposite on the planet. Perhaps just something to bear in mind next time.
I've found the best way to learn is to follow a tutorial and then having done it with the aid of the tutorial go back and see if you can produce similar results without it, then try to come up with some original ways of using the techniques. Having said that I'm not that good and have still a long way to go!!