Our next expedition Celebration of Early Astronomy 2 has been officially announced! and will be taking Fleet Carriers to and returning from the Messier 67 star cluster: https://expedition.page.link/Announcement
-- Please make sure to sign up at the following link: https://forms.gle/FiKTvtYGdPQ3rwqc8 <- This is the official roster, the EDSM signup is just if you wish to track yourself.
"The early 2000s, they were often the speculative setting of early science fiction works. Early imaginings of interstellar travel, first contact with aliens, apocalypses, you name it, there was probably a movie or book set in the early 21st century of it. While humanity may not have invented interstellar travel by 2020 as many novels and films purported, they still discovered plenty of gems of our galaxy by then.
Lucky for us in 3305 we do have interstellar travel and can visit these gems that humans on Earth in the early 21st century could only dream of visiting. So that is just what we will be setting out to do. This expedition will visit many of the noteworthy celestial objects discovered by the early 21st century, some of which even still are considered noteworthy even today in 3305.
We will be setting off from the Simbad's Refuge station in Nu Tauri. Named after the SIMBAD star catalogue used in the late 20th and early 21st century, located in the Nu Tauri system of the Taurus constellation."
Nu Tauri is a star in the constellation Taurus. The asteroid base located here in the game is named after the SIMBAD database of celestial objects and will serve as the starting point of our expedition.
W Ursae Majoris is a binary star near to our departure point. It is too faint to see with the naked eye, but it can be viewed with the assistance of a telescope.
The astronomical term "W Ursae Majoris variable" was named for this system, which refers to low mass eclipsing contact binaries.
Ninth brightest star in the night sky, and second brightest in the constellation Orion. Red supergiant of spectral type M1-2, one of the largest stars visible to the naked eye. This star is one of the shoulders of Orion.
The prototype star for the T Tauri class type of star, an early stage of stellar development for main sequence stars. For some reason this star is not actually a T Tauri class star in the game but shown as a G-class star, particluar reason is unknown, but perhaps despite odds it ended up finishing its T Tauri stage between 2019 and 3305, which is possible although unlikely.
Also known as "La Superba", this is the largest known Carbon Star. At a temperature of 2750K, it is one of the coldest known fusor stars. La Superba is most likely in the final stages of fusing it's remaining secondary fuel of helium into carbon and appears almost ready to eject its outer layers to form a planetary nebula, leaving behind its core in the form of a white dwarf.
One of the earliest discovered millisecond pulsars, as discovered by the W. M. Keck observatory. It is accompanies by a white dwarf star, which is also notable for being one of the coldest and reddest among all known white dwarfs at a temperature of only 4,000K
Open cluster in the Puppis constellation. Discovered by Giovanni Battista Hodierna prior to 1654. Was postulated to be two open clusters lying along the same line of sight. This was later confirmed in the 20th century. The cluster's central star Pi Puppis is a red supergiant in its dying days. Is nearly 140 solar radii but only .5 solar masses.
One of multiple star clusters in the Canis Majoris constellation and contains approximately 40 stars. Estimated to be roughly 20 million years old and moves in the general direction of the Canis Majoris star stream. Its central star is HIP 38064. Planet 2 contains a tourist beacon with information on the original discovery of this area.
The largest known star at the time of the in-game galaxy's creation. There have been larger stars, such as UY Scuti discovered since, but they do not appear in the game. At this time this is the largest known star in the in-game galaxy. It is a red hypergiant located in the constellation of Canis Major. If it was placed in the center of our solar system, its surface would extend beyond the orbit of Jupiter at the least. There is still considerable variation regarding the true radius of VY Canis Majoris, some estimates even have it large enough to extend past the orbit of Saturn.
A runaway star that was believed to be ejected from the Orion Nebula 4 to 5 million years ago by the supernova that created Barnard's Loop. It also is one of the few O-class stars that is visible to the unaided eye.
Rigel is the brightest star in the constellation Orion. It is expected to eventually end in supernova. Additionally it has two known companions Rigel B and Rigel C.
You will be able to route to EZ Orionis once you enter into this system. Trying to route prior to reaching Rigel will most likely bump the router into the permit locked regions around Barnard's Loop.
The Orion Nebula is a diffuse nebula situated south of Orion's Belt in the constellation of Orion. It is one of the brightest nebulae in the night sky and is visible to the naked eye. It is also the closest region of massive star formation to our solar system. One of the most photographed objects in the night sky, and subject of intense study.
Station nearby!
POI: Orion Nebula Tourist Centre in PMD2009 48
Messier 78 is a nebula in the Barnard's Loop area, blue and black in colouration. It is a reflection Nebula discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1780 and then included by Charles Messier in his catalog that members of are now referred to as Messier objects. This object was also featured in the 1960s era Japanese anime Ultraman as the location of "The Land of Light" that acted as the homeworld of the Ultramen.
Also known as Barnard 33, is a dark nebula in the constellation Orion, located just south of Alnitak, the easternmost star of Orion's Belt, and is part of the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex. It appears in the southern region of the Lynds 1630 dust cloud.
-- Trapezium Sector VY-A C5 seems like it should be the closest with the correct viewing angle of the Horsehead Nebula.
This system acts as our basecamp for this leg at the coordinates -23.8962, 87.232 on planet ABCDE 1 J. HD 38563 is a cluster of stars. In-game this includes the stars in this system as well as the stars in the systems titled "HD 38563 South" as well as "HD 38563North" which are in extremely close proximity to each other in terms of lightyears, but just far enough away from each other that they were made as seperate systems rather than a single one.
The brightest star in the Cygni constellation and 19th brightest star in the night sky. This star is hypothesized to be the star ionizing a band of interstellar dust between our solar system and the North America Nebula. Was also featured multiple times in the science fiction series Star Trek and its various iterations.
The brightest star in the Cygni constellation and 19th brightest star in the night sky. This star is hypothesized to be the star ionizing a band of interstellar dust between our solar system and the North America Nebula.
Officially designated as NGC 7000, it is a very large, but very dim nebula, so despite taking up a larger area in the sky than the full moon, it is not visible unaided to the naked eye. Even regular telescopes will merely show it as a foggy patch of light, even in the most dark skies. The shape of the nebula resembles the North American continent, including a prominent Gulf of Mexico. The section resembling Mexico and Central America is the Cygnus Wall. It is hypothesized that the star Deneb, is ionizing a band of interstellar dust between Earth and the North American and Pelican nebulae causing it to appear in the shape it does to us from Earth.
Officially designated as IC 5070, a nebula that is associated with and near the North America Nebula. It is the subject of study due to being a particularly active mix of star formation and evolving gas clouds. It is expected to look vastly different within millions of years, unlike most other nebulae.
Major star formation region that forms two nebula. The Heart Nebula is so named because of it's resemblance to a human heart when viewed from Earth. The Soul Nebula is also known as the Embryo Nebula.
Stations nearby!
POI: Base Camp in Soul Sector EL-Y d7
POI: Farsight Expedition Base in Heart Sector IR-V B2-0
Red Supergiant located in the Double Cluster (Caldwell 14) in the Perseus constellation. In the game galaxy version it is orbited by a landable planet so close that you can fuel scoop while in orbital flight.
Also known as NGC 7635, Sharpless 162, or Caldwell 11, it is an emission nebula in the constellation of Cassiopeia. The bubble is created by the stellar wind from a massive central star SAO 20575.
One of the largest red supergiants. Also known as Herschel's Garnet Star. In the constellation Cepheus. Since 1943 the spectrum of this star has served as the M2 Ia standard by which other stars are classified. It is one of the largest known stars, and if it was placed in the center of our solar system would extend to between the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn.
One of the top 10 largest known stars. If placed in the center of the solar system, it would extend past the orbit of Jupiter. It is also quite close to the Crescent Nebula. It is estimated to go supernova within 2 million years.
Station nearby!
POI: Medusa's Rock in Crescent Sector GW-W C1-8
A Blue Hypergiant in the Cygnus OB2 Association, one of the heaviest known areas of star formation in the Mily Way. It is 2 million times as luminous as Sol, and one of the brightest stars in the galaxy.
Binary system of a black hole and a blue giant. Discovered in 1964 due to the very high levels of x-rays produced by mass of the blue giant falling into the black hole. Was the first source of such powerful x-rays that was widely accepted to be a black hole.
First ever discovered pulsar in 1967. Due to the nature of pulsars as a repeating radio source not being a known phenomenon at the time, it was at first thought to be a signal from an alien intelligence. Originally named LGM-1 standing for "Little Green Men" because of that assumption. Later observation into it led to the discovery of pulsars and their nature.
A low-intermediate mass black hole of 118 solar masses with dramatic outbursts of increased emission, first discovered as an active radio source in 2009.
In game this system is interesting for being a black hole with an asteroid belt.
First detected in 1994 by the GRANAT orbital observatory and Kvant module on the space station Mir. Was the most intensive X-ray source in the galactic center region.
In the year of 2005 gravitational microlensing showed that it was very plausible, that this distant system would contain an extrasolar planet (source). More than a millenia should pass however, before this early discovery of an exoplanet were confirmed by deep space explorers. The planet itself is a class 1 Jovian.
Sagittarius A is the Supermassive Black Hole at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, the type of black hole generally accepted to be at the center of most, if not all spiral and elliptical galaxies. Observations of stars, most notably S2 that orbit around Sagittarius A have been used to show the presence of a supermassive black hole at that location. S2's highly eccentric orbit and proximity to Sagittarius A has been instrumental for scientists use in determining the location and mass of Sagittarius A. At it's closest to Sagittarius A* S2 was recorded to travel at a speed of 7650 km/s, or 2.55% the speed of light.
The remnant of an event in 2013 of a gas cloud roughly three times the mass of earth passing within 36 lighthours of Sagittarius A. It survived the encounter and has continued moving past Sagittarius A since 2013.
GRS 1737-31 is a stellar-mass black hole located in the Galactic Bar. This system was first observed in the year 1997 during observations of the galactic core, where it was detected as a source of gamma and X-rays.
Today, three other stars have been found in the system; two of very hot O-class, and one hot B-class. The high mass and very similar young age of these objects suggests that they originate from a similar area. Orbital periods are also quite short, which appears to point towards either a shared origin or capture.
A low mass X-ray source with regular outbursts every 5-10 years located in the galaxy center 2000 light years from Sagittarius A*. The main body of the system is a black hole of 170 solar masses which makes it one of the most massive objects of this type in the galaxy. It is orbited by three ordinary white stars and also a neutron star which itself is orbited by 3 brown dwarfs and an Y-type dwarf.
4 D A had a good view from it at -22.0209, -130.3600 with the black hole, the neutron star, and the G class star near each other in the sky.
GX 339-4 is a moderately strong variable galactic low-mass X-ray binary source and black-hole candidate that flares from time to time. From spectroscopic measurements, the mass of the black-hole was found to be at least of 5.8 solar masses. During the outbursts GX 339-4 shows evolution of quasi-periodic oscillations
Official Desingation: PSR 1509-58; A pulsar with a very distant 4.4-solar mass orbiting black hole situated within the Scutum-Centaurus Arm, approx. 17,000 LYs from Sol.
One of the EGRET six pulsars, studied between 1991 and 2002 and was early evidence that pulsars are the best sources of high-energy gamma ray radiation, an important milestone in astronomy.
Originally thought to be one single massive star of over 300 stellar masses, that would've been the most massive star. However, it was later discovered to be two massive O Class stars that are both themselves still individually amongst the largest known stars in existence. Those are Pismis 24-1NE and Pismis 24-1SW. These are located within the Lobster Nebula, which is one of the most prominent sites of massive-star formation in our neighborhood of the Milky Way, containing a variety of O-type stars.
A nebula discovered in 1784 by William Herschel at the beginning of his second deep sky survey. The white core of the nebula is a Wolf-Rayet star surrounded by a blue and purple planetary nebula.
This is a cluster of stars along the route that may have some interesting members in it. They are considered "intrinsically res sources" and were studied by the Spitzer telescope.
Located on the near edge of the Sagittarius Gap, two blue-white hyper-giants are found just 32 Ly apart. HR 6260 (also known as HD 152234) and SO4-H1E 2000 (also known as Zeta-1 Scorpii) serve as warning beacons for travelers about to enter the Sagittarius Gap. These hyper-giants are both part of the extended open cluster NGC 6231. Zeta-1 Scorpii was known by earth astronomers from antiquity, and is currently classified as one of the very rare 'S Doradus' type of variable star.
This star (also known as HIPP 63170) is a variable class-A super-giant. As an Alpha Cygni type variable, the star has irregular pulsations with periods from several days to several weeks, and brightens up to 0.1 magnitude.
The system also has a total of 8 stellar bodies below the limit for hydrogen fusion (class L, T and Y dwarves). Many of these hot dwarves have ring systems.
QZ Carinae (also called HD 93026) consists of three massive and highly luminous O-class stars, with a total of 121 solar masses. As seen from Sol, this system appears as one of the brightest stars in the Carina Nebula.
The star of this system is also known as V752 Carinae, the system also contains a confirmed extrasolar planet that was discovered by the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment.
In the 21st Century (2002 AD) the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE) detected periodic dimming in the star's light curve indicating a transiting, planetary-sized object. Since low-mass red dwarfs and brown dwarfs may mimic a planet, radial velocity measurements were necessary to calculate the mass of the body. In 2004, the object was proved to be a new transiting extrasolar planet.
A blue supergiant visible from Earth by the naked eye. Also listed as a green system in case you need to restock on your FSD injection materials. Mammon Monitoring Facility is also near this location if you are looking to offload some of your data.
NOTE: For some reason this system has you jump in to the secondary star rather than the primary star. The primary star Antares is actually the point of interest.
The 15th brightest star in the night sky and the brightest star in the Scorpius constellation. It is often referred to as The Heart of the Scorpion because of its distinct red hue when viewed with the naked eye.
It is a red supergiant and among the largest known stars. It also has a companion star Antares B which is a typical B-class star.
The 'Coronet' Pulsar is the colloquial term for the double neutron star system of PSR J1856-3754, the closest pulsar to Sol with a mere 521 light years. It lies in the Corona Austrinae molecular cloud and is associated with the so-called Coronet Cluster (CrA), a small cluster of young stars embedded in a small emission nebula (R CrA/NGC 6729) in that same region. The pulsar is also a member of the Magnificent Seven, a group of isolated neutron stars that are all relatively close to Sol and fall in line with the Gould Belt.
The pulsar was once suspected to be a quark star, a hypothetical type of compact exotic star composed of quark matter, where extremely high temperature and pressure forces nuclear particles to dissolve into a continuous phase consisting of free quarks. Later observations determined it did not have sufficient temperature and size for this type of star.
We end out expedition at the system where the real world and the Elite: Dangerous procedurally generated galaxy collided with each other. In early 2017 astronomers discovered seven approximately Earth-sized rocky exoplanets in orbit of Trappist-1. Three of which were within the habitable zone of this ultra-cool red dwarf star roughly 39.5 light years from Earth. Players of Elite: Dangerous quickly realized that there was a system in roughly the correct location called Core Sys Sector XU-P A5-0 at 42 Ly from Sol that happened to be a brown dwarf, not much colder than the red dwarf named Trappist-1 with seven terrestrial worlds around it. The system was officially tweaked to be a red dwarf and renamed to Trappist-1 for the 2.3 update.
Support me on Patreon!
Did you knew that you can support me on Patreon?
As a freelancer, you can weight into my work more than you can think,
every single donation is time for me to do more awesome work for the community!
