Distance Covered: 1,176 lys

Visited Systems: 21

Highlights: Triplets in Sepia

One of the major differences of this journey now compared to the one coming here to Colonia is the lack of outposts or stations on the way. Explorer's Anchorage is the only one waiting for me, and even that one was only built recently. Although I have had longer stretches already this will be nevertheless a new experience being one single long trip. Of course there are much longer trips to be made yet (Beagle Point comes to mind) and this will another good test for me as a pilot and how to deal with the challenges that are to be expected to occur.

In any case, on my first day I aimed for the Triplets in Sepia (Dryooe Prou VI-A d1-368), aptly named for their three Ammonia Worlds. Two of them in a tight binary orbit and these two only 7 ls away from the third one again in a tidal lock. The system also offers three Water Worlds (two of them terraformable) and a couple of terraformable High Metal Content Worlds. After scanning everything there was still time left for a few systems more, before I stopped for the night.

Note: At this stage of my exploration the POIs serve more as a waypoint. There will be fewer on this journey, however, the hope is to find my own interesting systems. But it could also be that some days are simple dull and filled with lots of Icy Bodies only ;-)

It's been a few days since I have arrived in the Colonia Area. Of course I made a stop at Jacques Station but no human was welcoming me, which was rather disturbing. Fortunately this seems only true for Jacques Station. When you are out in the black and come back after days or even weeks the sound of a human voice means more than just "hello". It is a sign that you have returned to civilisation and its comforts, no matter how limited they may be at that moment.

Speaking of limitations, the availability of modules seems rather incomplete. In my attempt to have a change of pace for a few days I wanted to do some bounty hunting. Reason enough to finally buy that Vulture I had my eye on for some time. To find a place that sold one was luckily still rather easy, but when it came to some higher grade modules Colonia seems to be quite lacking. I had to do with a 4C FSD only (no A-rated was available), the same was true for Power Plants and some other modules. They did have at least the big guns that the Vulture so relies on, namely a 3-sized Beam Laser and Multi-Cannon.

And off I went for some combat in the next Resource Extraction Zone. It was good to be out there and I spent the better part of two days killing those "bad, bad pirates." It still was a surprise from though that I managed to get another promotion from the Pilots Federation, which in turn earned me the attention of a local engineer, Petra Olmanova. I checked her portfolio and then my materials and realised that I could do a few upgrades reducing weight of modules and increasing my ships hull armor, something an explorer always needs. The other weapon mods I was not so interested in. I don't mind the occasional combat as "recreational" activity, but it is not something I excel in nor do I strive for it.

So what has all of this to do with Sag A* you ask? To speak the truth, it was nice to come here, but there is little here that makes me want to stay. I've done enough trading in my life, combat is more of a sporadic thing and available equipment can limit other activities quite heavy as well (e.g. some crucial mining equipment is not available either). And to ship everything here from the bubble is prohibitive, if not from a financial point of view (I have the money), then at least from a timing point of view (61 hours, assuming you have the needed stuff actually stored or equipped in one of your ships). I didn't really see the advantage of it all.

Which leaves exploration, which I have learned to love, and my thoughts about visiting Sag A* (considered already before I even arrived in Colonia). So I sat down and looked at a possible route with some interesting systems on the way (the long way, of course, not the direct route). I will make a slight curve north around the Galactic Center, trying to get below the plane about 3,000 lys (aiming for Mariana) and then above 3,000 lys (aiming for Peak). I may not reach those POIs since I will use only conventional boosts due to my lack of neutron star boost procedure. And this is not the time to try it out either. And then finally towards Explorer's Anchorage and Sag A*. From there back to the bubble, but that part has not been planned out yet (except going to Polo Harbour), I'll do that when I made it safely to Sag A*.

I will start today and continue my log book in a very similar way as I have coming here.

Visited Systems: 28

Highlights: Jacques Station

Dry Facts: 38 days travelled, 1998 unique systems visted, 2018 hyperspace jumps and 61.755 lys distance covered.

Late night I finally arrived at my destination, Jacques Station in the Colonia System. 38 days ago I set out on this journey leaving Shinrarta Dehzra on April 21st, 3305. The distance is roughly about 22,000 lys and my ship has a jump range of about 58 lys. It is easy to calculate that the shortest route would amount to about 380 to 400 jumps. As you can tell I did not take the shortest route. This trip was about getting experience in exploration and though I followed a string of beads in form of known points of interest and the stations along the Colonia Highway I still managed to find many yet undiscovered systems just by deviating a bit off the beaten path. No surprise then that I covered almost triple the distance than a direct route would have taken me.

Our galaxy is so big and there are so many systems that a few thousand travellers do not seem to make a significant impact. There is plenty left to discover even along the highway, all you need to do is to move a few systems to the side in any direction. A very exciting, yet maybe also in a way a very sobering thought.

This particular travel log will be closed, I will rest a few days, or perhaps weeks and do something different. A bit of trading, some bountyhunting, whatever meets my fancy. But I feel already that the exploration bug has bitten me. Compared to what is behind me the distance to Sagittarius A* is easily manageable, however, the safety network is almost completely gone except for the newly built station Explorer's Anchorage. I need to stock up on raw materials to be better prepared. The ship itself has proven to be trustworthy, all needed equipment is there for such a trip. So Sag A* beckons and where to go from there, we'll see. Maybe back to the Bubble for a while, but then the whole galaxy waits for me. I want to see at least some more parts of it.

Signing off for now. o7

CMDR Erratic Spawn

Visited Systems: 38

Highlights: Eoch Trio, The Phare

The name says it all, Eoch Trio (Eoch Pruae CA-Z d832) is a system with three Earth-like Worlds, two of them in a close binary orbit. I took a few photographs and then moved on. I am getting eager now to reach Colonia, nevertheless I wanted to visit one more POI, one that promised to provide quite a spectacular sight. Thus I headed to The Phare (Ooscs Freau VY-Z d1670). And spectacular it was. Already at the arrival you are not only presented with a neutron star flashing with high frequency, but also with a K-class companion only 11 ls away. The most interesting part however is that there are two landable planets each only 36 ls away (so both also very close to each other). I landed on both, the second one also has some Silicate Vapour geysers and I picked a landing spot close to it, the whole site brightly lit in an eerie blueish-white lit from the neutron star above. Truely stunning pictures to be made there and I spent quite some time in the system.

After that I finally started to descend to Colonia which I will reach tomorrow. I did find another instance of a "Juego de Bolos" configuration, the third one within three days. The POI must have been declared as such in the early days of human exploration of the galaxy, because with modern scanning technology it appears fairly easy to identify similar setups and there appear to be plenty of them.

Visited Systems: 40

Highlights: Celestia & Luna

Again only one target today, Celestia and Luna (Dryio Flyuae KC-V e2-425) are, contrary to what their name might suggest, not moons but rather two ringed Earth-like Worlds in a binary orbit around a B-class star. It is always good to see these blue-green pearls hanging in the sky, they offer a brief respite from all the barren worlds that one usually encounters, no matter how beautiful they might be. There is not much else to see in that system and soon I headed back out again after the obligatory photographs. Though the next POI is somewhat similar to this except it sports three ELWs. I didn't quite make it there, but tomorrow it is my first item on the list.

Visited Systems: 36

Highlights: Thargantua

I still did a few jumps yesterday leaving Juego de Bolos on my way to the next location, Thargantua, since it was some way off. Today I should be able to get there. But shortly after I continued my way something interesting happened. I must admit that I found the Juego de Bolos a bit underwhelming, my feeling said that such a configuration would probably be not so unusual. It seemed to me that I had seen several close encounters, but then I did not pay too much attention on this detail and certainly there was nothing in the FSS during the last weeks that would immediately stick out (the sole exception were the Clockwork Rings, which even in the FSS popped out as unusual). Thus I also considered this to be an excercise for me to see how such a specific configuration would present itself and whether I had missed something so far. It turned out that the FSS provided no obvious clues and one had to inspect the system map, particularly using the Orrery Mode, to be able to identify the planet and moons in question (since the POI info did not provide that detail). Nevertheless the FSS does provide data about bodies in a tidal lock and distance of the objects, some initial data to build on.

Now here comes the interesting part. A few systems later I discovered an essentially identical configuration: A central planet (this time with rings) orbited by several moons, the two closest one in a very tight tidal lock and both close enough to the planet for it to be impressive as well. Was I only lucky (hard to believe) or is that "Bowling Game" setting way more common (my assumption) than the POI seemed to indicate? From now on I'll keep an eye open for such planetary constellations and will do my on little survey.

With that in mind I continued my journey to Thargantua (Dryuae Aoscs AA-A h370) which hosts a giant Ammonia World (680 Earth Masses) surrounded by nothing less than ten (10!) proto-stars (the arrival star is a Herbig star, the others are all T-Tauri stars). One jump more to leave the system, and then I called it a day.

Visited Systems: 34

Highlights: Juego de Bolos

Single highlight today was a planetary constellation called Juego de Bolos (Dryoea Flyuae DA-A e1141). A 3 has several moons, the two innermost (A 3 a and b) extremely close to each other and both of them still close enough to offer an interesting setting. I've landed on A 3 b and yes, it feels like A 3 a is goint go crush you any moment now. The system was a bit out of the way, but it was certainly worth the exploration side trip to get there and enjoy the view.

Visited Systems: 33

Highlights: Vihara Gate

There is not much to report from this day. I arrived very late but safely at Vihara Gate in the Kashyapa System. The station is in a very close orbit of a ringed Earth-like World which offers a stunning view during the approach phase. In fact the world has almost identical parameters to good ol' Earth, because it has exactly 1g in gravity. No wonder people settled here in this system.

I cashed in my exploration data including data for one system that made me 24 Million credits alone. Not less than nine terraformable worlds, four of them Water Worlds, the others High Metal Content Worlds, were the reason for this amount. Still, before I hit the sack I've arranged for the usual wear and tear repairs of the ship. Tomorrow I would start the final segment towards Colonia. It shouldn't take more than two days to get there.

Visited Systems: 34

Highlights: (not quite) Top of the World

A few jumps up were still possible, in the end it was about 1091 lys above the Cat's Perch Nebula from where I started this particular endeavour and about 3490 lys above Kashyapa, my next station. At least that is what the Galactic Map tells me. Although it is by no means the top of our galaxy it does offer a breathtaking view of it. On one side the clearly recognizable center with a blur of millions of stars thinning out towards the arms. On the opposite almost pure blackness, except for the few stars left that are beyond my reach. The system itself had a pair of class B stars and some landable moons, so I took the opportunitiy to investigate one of them for its geological phenomena and also to take some more photographs of the awe inspiring surroundings. Because it sure makes you thinking when you look into the void, apparently empty, yet filled with other islands similar to our own galaxy simply to far away to be visible to the naked eye. The sheer scale of our universe hits you at that moment and makes you understand what a tiny speck we are really in the grand scheme of things.

Luckily my philosophy phase came to a timely end, not the least with the realisation that my own exploring of unknown worlds helps building our understanding and knowledge of the Milky Way. With that I went off starting my descent to Kashyapa, 65 jumps according to my navigation computer.

Visited Systems: 32

Highlights: Cat's Perch Nebula

I made it to Cat's Perch Nebula (Eulail IG-M c8-9) today. According to the Pilots Federation Data Base it is approximately 3,000 lys above the Colonia Highway. The nebula itself is somewhat unspectacular, especially from the inside, which is probably due to the fact that its central star is a very mundane yellow-orange K-class star.

Being up here does already provide a good view of our galaxy, except not in the nebula itself where the sight is largely blocked. Therefore I followed my plan and tried to plot a route even more upwards using standards jumps only (and for the time being still excluding M-class stars for the path finding). I managed to get up some additional 854 lys before I had to quit for the day. I will give it another try tomorrow, we'll see what is possible.