With months of criss-crossing the darkness, and months more ahead of me, it was nice to call into a solid base for some R&R and to stretch the legs.

Gagarin Gate, about halfway to Colonia (if you take a straight line) was my home - and provide (almost) all of the services I was after...

I took on some pew-pew action - but that proved expensive - so I think I'll be back on my own again shortly.

Today I reached another waypoint on my journey of discovery. This was another checkpoint described by the Galactic Mapping project with the inspirational name 'Fields of Elysium' - and the slightly more routine name 'CLOOKU GR-U D3-112'.

As the Guide describes it:

Two glorious ringed ELWs separated by only 1 light-second. This system is along the Sol-Colonia route and is unlike anything in the bubble and is thus a must-see to anyone making the trip to Colonia.

Wonderful stuff

Another archived Galactic Mapping site can be found in CLOOKU FR-P C8-73 - known as the 'Eye of the Gods'; which is described thus:

The eclipsing suns - the "eye of the gods" - will follow you when landing on this small high metal content world at the right time. The eye follows every movement and when it is pleased it will continue it's graceful choreography as the eye opens up. An M-class and a K-class star orbit each other closely like 2 burning swans connected forever.

Hopefully I have caught something of the site's former glory.

Behold the wondrous Llyn Tegid Nebula (CLOOKU WO-Z E3682) - a system where colours run for days and a beautiful blue covers the sky.

Another site gathered from the Galactic Mapping project

Next on my list of 'all things interesting to visit', I cam across the intriguingly named 'Causality of Lotus'. This system, XEEHIA GT-G D11-8 was, according to the Galactic Mapping Project:

Discovered during the Autumn Odyssey, this system posses [sic] a glowing magenta giant which has a strange behaviour, when you look directly at it, certainly because of the near neutron star, its colors change to appear almost plain pink

I took the following fetching shot of the giant, which, while being quite spectacular, failed to live up to the hype:

Of course, the reference is now archived - with the following note attached:

Update Feb. 3305 Please note that the 3.3 update has now 'normalized' the colors of planet 1, and the bright pink hue no longer exists.

Oh well

Today I reached a most remarkable system in PREAE AIN CG-X E1-14 - known to the Galactic Mapping Project as 'Galactic Helium Reserve' - which states:

'A twin Herbig Ae/Be system that contains a record 23 Helium rich giants. As of 09/02/2019 this is the single largest known collection of helium giants'

It's probably been seen here before - but this map really is something special:

The next pitstop on my Canonn Challenge Journey plus a visit to everything else even remotely interesting saw me reach system PREAE AIN KD-Z D1-12, recorded in the Galactic Map as Mariner's Reach.

'The first waypoint system where the first ever Colonial Marine Wing gathered during the inaugural patrol (October 3302). The system was jointly 'tagged' to mark the ceremonial beginning of the Colonia Citizens Network's attempt to patrol shipping lanes from the bubble to Colonia.'

The embedded link takes me to the impressively badged 'Colonial Marines' forum entry dated September 2016 (Earth Year). This includes some fine photographic entries, details of the Marines themselves, options for their Marine Green Livery, details of founding members, as well as details of just what it takes qualify to join the Marines.

Sadly it seems just two short months later the Colonia Militia forces were decommissioned - and that's 'all she wrote'.

Oh well

Its lonely out in space - really lonely. But when I bumped into a like-minded spirit out in the darkness - I knew I had found a trues friend. We spent hours chatting about the weather, the footy and just admiring the view. But I knew I had to keep moving - and so did, um, it.

Thankfully, I will always have this selfie to remind me of my new best friend.

A White Dwarf DBZ

Since I have already kicked of my own challenge - that includes a number of the sites on this challenge - I plan to log some of the highlights so far

This is a shot from my second visit to the P-02 Anomaly found in Ellaisms QX-U e2-43.

The first visit was met by my unplanned death having flown straight into it.

It gets hot in there...