I created some scripts using Maya's MEL scripting language, hopefully they may be useful to you:
Starfield: Generates a particle object in random spherical 3D space within a minimum and maximum radius to simulate a star field. User inputs minimum radius, maximum radius of the spherical space and number of particles to generate. To install, copy this file to your scripts directory. To execute enter starField in the command line.
Link:
http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/downloads/scripts-plugins/c/starfield
Lightinten: Multiplies the intensity of selected lights by a factor. This is useful if you are overexposed or underexposed and you want to make the scene lighter or darker but preserving the relationships among intensities.
Link:
http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/downloads/scripts-plugins/c/lightinten