How to make a sky environment map? If I have a scene that I want to add a bounding box to that makes it look like it is outside during the day. In the past I have just added a big UV Sphere to my scene that surrounds the entire scene and added a texture that looks like a sky. This is a bit clunky and it can appear that the sky is too close and it makes it look fake.

Is there a better way for me to create a background for my scene? Is it possible to make an environment map for the sky? I am using the default Blender renderer.
To add an image as your world background, you need to set that image as a texture input for the world object. To do this, add a texture to the world by selecting the world object in the Outliner, then selecting the 'Textures' tab of the Properties panel and adding a new texture. Go to the Preview submenu and select the world tab, so that you are editing the global texture. Finally, under the type of texture, select 'Image or Movie', and select the image you wish to use.

For a more detailed description of the subject, go to http://pages.uoregon.edu/art3d/composite/composite25.html.