Last night I finally got to participate in my first mass jump ever. I have never seen so many commanders in the same instance, although I know that what there were was a long way from the record-setting events. I think somebody counted over 70 commanders.

Although I had to stay up past 3am local time, it was well worth it.

I arrived a little early to WP6 on Fine Ring Sector JH-V c2-4 C 2 at 10.94/41.02. It was still early morning twilight, but the local wildlife was friendly, proving you can get bugs on your windshield even when there's no wind!

About 3 hours later commanders started arriving in greater numbers and the local light improved.

After another 3 hours it was brighter still, and the Fine Ring Nebula rose above the horizon.

Eventually I counted about 13 other commanders. I think that's the most I've seen at a meetup so far.

It's less than an hour until the mass jump...

I arrived a day early to WP5 (KN Muscae 1 at -5.25/-0.95) to find the crater for the meetup was filled with a dark red mist. Very 'atmospheric'.

When I logged on the next evening (afternoon Europe time) it was dark and nobody was there (not too surprising). After a while I noticed the light changing and realised the local star was just rising above the crater rim.

About three hours later other commanders started turning up.

Just about to leave WP4 (CD-39 6137 2 a at 19.89/-125.84) for WP5.

When I first arrive, the gas giant the world orbits was visible above the landing zone.

The mountain peaks next to the LZ demanded climbing, and the low gravity obliged!

20.0823/-125.2657 is the peak closest to the LZ, although there is a higher peak a little further away that I also climbed.

For some reason I didn't see very many other commanders at this meetup.

The WP3 meetup was on HIP 38064 4 at -69.83/-129.73. I arrived a bit early and visited the tourist beacon.

As you can see, the system star is a class-O, which creates a stark blue-white light. The meetup planet itself is quite close to the star and has rings. It also has a relatively high gravity, 3.13G. While not super-high, care should still be taken on approach and landing.

There were quite a few commanders at the meetup and the view of the system star through the rings was beautiful.

Next up was WP2 on Trapezium Sector CG-X d1-18 ABC 2 c a at -12.55/-61.23.

I arrived the night before the actual meetup. Messier 78 was visible.

The landing zone is up on top of an ice ridge.

If it was a rocky or HMC world I'd have no problems driving the SRV up or down, but on icy worlds there is just so little traction.

I arrived at WP1 a few hours later, but decided to head to Witch Head Sector HW-W c1-3 for some prospecting and logged off for the night there.

The next evening, I decided to return to the WP1 meetup site one day early and see if anyone was there. The meetup site is on HIP 23759 9 a at 9.02/-142.41 and several commanders were already there.

The nearby gas giant was just on the horizon - always a good place for a photo.

The next night was the official meetup night, but I decided I needed to tweak my livery a bit and so headed to the nearest station with outfitting, the Orion Nebula Tourist Centre:

I then returned to the WP1 meetup.

This time the gas giant was fully lit, with the Witch Head Nebula behind it.

I knew I wouldn't quite make the start of the Small Worlds Expedition 3, and have arrived at WP0 on T Tauri A 1 a at -72.14/99.26 one day late.

Of course, my Anaconda wasn't suitable for this expedition so I switched to my Cobra Mk 4 already somewhat fitted out for exploration and headed off after a livery change.

I arrived at about lunch time, stopped for some screenshots and a meal break, then immediately set off for WP1.

The Children of Raxxla Listening Post Alpha is on IC 1848 Sector IS-T d3-29 A 3 a at -7.38/-125.87. There is nothing actually there on the surface, but at the time I arrived the nearby ringed landable HMC world was low in the sky.

Base Camp is an asteroid station not too far from the Formidine Rift.

It was in shadow when I visited, but that only served to emphasise the station lighting and the red nebula against the dark of the rock.

This is my first station since Colonia! I sold off enough exploration data to ally with the controlling faction. I'll do the same when I visit the Farsight Expedition Base that is only a few jumps away.