Just a small request - Since this is my first attempt at a 'mod', and I have plans for making more such skyboxes for KSP, it would be very helpful for me to know your opinions. If you have some time at hand, please head over to the forum thread and leave your feedback. Thanks!

Depends on TextureReplacer Replaced

Nestled between the gorgeous Flame Nebula and the intimidating Horsehead, is the home planet of the Kerbals. They are a peace loving people, and having just become a space-faring civilization, little do they know that roughly 1200 light years from their beautiful planet Kerbin, lies the home planet of the war mongering species of Man, called Earth. At such a relatively close distance, it’s only a matter of time until the two civilizations come into contact with each other. Can the peace loving Kerbals hold their own when the corporate might of Mankind come knocking with their galactic-class mining ships? The Kerbals have, at least, 1200 years to prepare for that eventuality. For now however, they are happy to look up at the night sky and wonder, “Where the kell did Jebediah hide the Horse’s body?"

DOWNLOAD
1. You MUST download TextureReplacer Replaced, if you haven’t already.
2. Download the skybox.
3. Unpack the ZIP archive and place the GameData folder into your KSP install directory, replacing the original.

TECHNICAL INFO
- The skybox was captured using SpaceEngine 0.9.8. Later, I used 'real' images of the individual objects, from various sources (see full list below), to add more detail.
- How did I choose which objects to make visible and which ones to ignore? I increased SpaceEngine’s magnitude limit to the 8th (from the default of 7th) and exported the skybox at 4096px resolution. I kept the objects which were visible in the exported images. For example, even though the Eagle nebula is ~3300 ly away, it wasn’t showing inside SpaceEngine, whereas the Lagoon nebula which is farther away at ~5200 ly was visible; probably because the Lagoon is nearly 4 times larger than the Eagle.
- How ‘realistic’ IS this skybox? The locations of the stars, nebulae and galaxies in the sky are precisely where they should be, at least according to SpaceEngine, but I have taken some artistic liberty with their sizes. For example, the Flame nebula should appear a lot larger, and the Great Carina nebula, a lot smaller, in the sky. My priority was to create something dynamic and intriguing without making it too overwhelming or too unrealistic. As such, I wouldn’t claim the skybox to be a very ‘realistic’ depiction of the sky from that location in space. Not to mention, many of the nebulae and galaxies shouldn’t even be visible. However, I have reduced the brightness of such objects to make them hard to spot.
Click here to view a labeled screenshot of all the nebulae and galaxies in the skybox.

LICENSE - This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) license.

SOURCES - All other objects, except the ones exclusively mentioned below, are sourced directly from Space Engine v0.9.8.

Galaxy ESO 97-G13, Circinus – NASA/Andrew S. Wilson (University of Maryland); Patrick L. Shopbell (Caltech); Chris Simpson (Subaru Telescope); Thaisa Storchi-Bergmann and F. K. B. Barbosa (UFRGS, Brazil); and Martin J. Ward (University of Leicester, U.K.)

Galaxy NGC 5128, Centaurus A – ESO/WFI (Optical); MPIfR/ESO/APEX/A.Weiss et al. (Submillimetre); NASA/CXC/CfA/R.Kraft et al. (X-ray)

Galaxy M83, Southern Pinwheel – ESO

Galaxy M31, Andromeda – Torben Bjørn Hansen

Galaxy M33, Triangulam – Alexander Meleg

Galaxy UGCA 39, Maffei 2 – Atlas Image courtesy of 2MASS/UMass/IPAC-Caltech/NASA/NSF; Image mosaic by R. Cutri (IPAC)

Nebula M78 – ESO/Igor Chekalin

Nebula NGC 2023 – ESO/J. Emerson/VISTA. Acknowledgment: Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit

Nebula Barnard 33, Horsehead – Ken Crawford

Nebula M42, Orion – [Bryan Goff] -(https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Backyard_photo_of_the_Orion_Nebula.jpg)

Nebula NGC 2818 – NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Nebula Puppis A – NASA/CXC/IAFE/G.Dubner et al & ESA/XMM-Newton

Nebula NGC 3372, Eta Carinae – Harel Boren

Nebula NGC 3324 – ESO

Nebula ESO 170-6, Fleming 1 – ESO/H. Boffin

Nebula HD 44179, Red Rectangle – H. Van Winckel (KU Leuven), M. Cohen (UC Berkeley), H. Bond (STScI), T. Gull (GSFC), ESA, NASA

Nebula M8, Lagoon – ESO

Nebula IC 2118, Witch Head – NASA/STScI Digitized Sky Survey/Noel Carboni

Nebula NGC 2024, Flame – ESO and Digitized Sky Survey 2. Acknowledgment: Davide De Martin

Nebula M45, Pleiades – Zdeněk Bardon/ESO

Nebula NGC 7000, North America – Oliver Stein

Nebula NGC 1499, California – Zdeněk Bardon/ESO

Nebula NGC 7380, Wizard – Chuck Ayoub

Nebula Sh2-190 and Sh2-199, Heart and Soul – NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA

Nebula M1, Crab – ESO

Nebula Sh2-274, Medusa – ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2