The Shadow Proves the Sunshine

So the challenge was to do a galaxy rise, similar to a sunrise, but not using a sun. So I decided to use a nebula, though I'm guessing planets probably wouldn't be able to get very close, but it's art! I can bend the rules a little.
Anyways, this probably took me about 2 1/2 hours, and I'm very proud that I did a decent speed/conceptual painting! I had some help from these awesome tutorials: [link] [link]
as well as this fractal for the nebula: [link]
I'm kind of proud of it, but would love to also hear tips on what looks good or not!
Title is from a Switchfoot song that is pretty awesome