Wanting to paint your star ceiling, but not sure how you want to lay things out? I get questions on that all the time... and thought that this might help.
This is what I send to people who are buying my DIY Kit, but it should be helpful to anyone who wants to freehand their ceiling too.
These are some of the more well-known constellations, but if you like other ones, you can easily find them online. These are also laid out roughly where they'd be in relation to one another.
Unless you are OCD about tputting every star where it needs to go (where only you would know), then I'd suggest only worrying about putting the Big and Little Dippers where they need to go in relation to one another and if you have room, then Cassiopeia too. Then just place however many others that you can in your mural, without going too small or too crowded, and call it good.
The constellations are awesome, but they aren't the entire night sky. They play a big part in the look and feel, but don't overthink things. For constellation sized stars you can use a Q-Tip to paint it, and it should be about the size of the Q-Tip.
Once you have your constellations mapped out and painted, then you'll move on to adding in a good number of randomly placed smaller stars. The smaller stars should be painted with something small and pointed. I suggest that people use a small paint brush... and then turn it around and use the pointy tip of the handle. DON'T USE THE BRUSH END!!
Good luck. I'd love questions if you've got 'em.
Jeff