Thankyou, very nice one yourself. I guess it depends on what you're used to. I find After Effects to be a great product. Having used it more than I use Photoshop, I find myself being able to work it far easier as I know it better and can more or less tell what tools I could use for an effect. For example, I know that I could use the CC Sphere effect on a flat map of the Earth to wrap the image in a sphere, then do the same with the clouds, make it a slightly larger sphere and use the transparency settings to add depth. I wouldn't have a clue how to go about that in Photoshop.
For the shot I did, After Effects is quite adequate. However, if I wanted a much closer, more detailed shot I'd have to use a 3D program, such as Blender. Fortunately, there are a few good websites with plenty of tutorials to help learn the programs.
Just signed up to ImageShack so hopefully know you can see the image full size:
http://img838.imageshack.us/img838/2725/earthtt.jpg