And I still don't think you're making slow progress. No slower than I remember myself doing. And I haven't taken anything that affects memory since I started studying German, at the very least (unless you count tea)... Granted, I've been called a "slow" (read: lazy) learner more or less to my face several times in my life, but all in all I don't think you can say that I'm doing badly after 5 years.

As an aside, I'm not sure Sterne sehen is a natural word order even in German. I mean, I don't know where you'd expect to see that as a standalone sentence. And otherwise the translation will depend, and might not be either of your options... Like this sentence I've found: Aber die Sterne sehen hübsch aus - But the stars look pretty. Granted, it's a pretty convoluted example, since "sehen" there is part of the verb "aussehen" - "look, seem, appear".