Visited Systems: 23

Highlights: Thor's Eye, NGC 6445, Several Type B stars, Metallic Crystals

As planned I went for a little sightseeing roundtrip today. First stop was HD 164865, a system with a solitary blue-white super giant (class A). It is impressive when you arrive in such a system and have this gigantic disc in front of you. Just make sure that throttle is set to Zero though, such a beast is difficulat to circumvent. On my way there I also happened to find more Prasinum and Flavum Metallic Crystals.

Next stop was Thor's Eye, again no planets, "only"the very impressive Class O Arrival Star and of course the Black Hole. With the Lagoon Nebula and NGC 6530 in the background a sight to behold.

From there a few hundred light years "up", almost above the Lagoon Nebula, a very different sight. NGC 6445, a beautiful planetary nebula in the system CSI-20-17462. If I may quote the EDSM entry here: "The nebula is red-and-green, lit by neutron star CSI-20-17462 and two T-Tauri protostars. A single landable body provides rest and sight-seeing for the weary traveller." And it was exactly as stated.

Finally on to Herschel 36, the candle that lights up the Lagoon Nebula. This candle is in reality a pair of two O-type stars which emanate ultraviolet light, heating and ionizing gases on the surface of the nebula. No other planetary bodies.

That covered my original itinerary, but heading back towards Amundsen Terminal I couldn't resist to visit NGC 6530 WFI 16706 to pay hommage to the starting location of the Distant Worlds 3302 Expedition and then later for the Sagittarius-Carina Mission. Landing on the A 1 A moon provides a stunning view of the ringed A 1 planet and the nebula all around.

Now I am back at Amundsen Terminal, resting one more night before I head out again, with another Asteroid Base (Observation Post Epsilon) as my next milestone.

Visited Systems: 60

Highlights: Stairways to Heaven (NGC 6530), Lagoon Nebula, Amundsen Terminal

My 9th leg had again two parts because of 1k ly limit in economic plotting and I had picked a class A star as endpoint. What I didn't realise was that I would have the impressive NGC 6530 Open Cluster right in front of me leading like stairways towards my final destination of the leg, namely Amundsen Terminal in the Lagoon Nebula.

So I decided to change my plotting filter and climb this stairway to heaven by selecting only ABO stars. 17 steps later (1 O and 16 A stars later) I arrived at the "top" and safely landed at the planetary outpost.

When I asked for my usual repair check (this time ship integrity only) the technician asked me how I liked Thor's Eye. Me: "What's Thor's Eye?" He looked at me suprised and said: "Are you saying you missed one of the more famous blackholes in the area? How is that even possible, it must have been right on your route?". So I asked for details and decided to squeeze in a day for sightseeing and not only look at the Lagoon Nebula itself, but also at Thor's Eye, a blue supergiant close by (HD 164865) and NGC 6445 (Planetary Nebula) on my way back to the station.

Visited Systems: 97

Highlights: Shock Arrival at a Close Binary System

Not much to tell about this leg except for one moment of shock. I jumped into a system where the arrival star (M Red Dwarf) was only 3 ls apart from its partner (L Brown Dwarf). I can only assume the FSD mechanic protected me, because it sure looked like I flew right through the brown dwarf before the hyperspace drop ended in front of the red dwarf. Suprised that my ship did not explode immediately I was ready to deploy heatsinks and to boost out of the exclusion zone, but in fact all was fine. No emergency drop, no damage, but I was so shaken that I even forgot to scoop fuel, I just wanted to get some distance from the pair.

It took me a while to get my wits back together but the remainder of the day was as uneventful as the beginning.

Visited Systems: 106

Highlights: Metallic Crystals

I made some decent progress towards Amundsen Terminal, my next stop. The Sagittarius Gap has been forgiving so far, currently I am right in the middle of it. Again this has probably much to do with the filtering of non-scoopable stars when plotting the route and also again because of this most systems I have entered had been visited before. This is after all the main route to Colonia. Nevertheless I did manage to hit a couple of systems which had been missed by others.

Two of the systems encountered on this leg offered Metallic Crystals, the first one Prosinum and Purpureum Metallic Crystals, the second system two instances of the Purpureum variety. The observation of these stellar phenomena offers always a nice break from the monotonous routine of pressing forward.

Tomorrow I should reach the other side of the gap thus finally leaving the Inner Orion Spur. It is those moments that make me realise the sheer scale of our galaxy and my present journey which only covers a fraction of the galaxy diameter.

Visited Systems: 91

Highlights: Hillary Depot, Metallic Crystals

I arrived safely at Hillary Depot although the planetary approach needed my full attention since it had been a while. Again the outpost had no Outfitting Service, so all there was to do was to get the minor repairs done apart from the shield which I had repaired in deep space using the AFMU. I restocked it accordingly.

Originally I had thought that I would stay overnight here, but quite honestly the quarters offered were not much different from my ship cabin. And my own coffee was much better that the one served at the station. The investment into a fully automated coffee maker (which would grind the beans freshly every time) fully paid off on this journey.

Therefore after some carefull route planning to avoid Aucock's Pocket when crossing the Sagittarius Gap I took off again heading towards Amundsen Terminal, my next stop. I managed to hit a few dozen systems before I stopped for the "night" (i.e. the arbitrary rest period in space). And all of them had already been visited and scanned, quite different to my last leg. Clearly I was following a well trodden path, possibly because I had filtered out the infamous T-Tauri stars and Brown Dwarfs to avoid said Pocket, a strategy that other pilots surely have applied as well. The only notable highlight therefore after Hillary Depot was a system with some Flavium and Prasinum Metallic Crystals, a welcome distraction.

Visited Systems: 54

Highlights: Proto-Lagrange Clouds, Water World Emergency Drop

The familiar rhythm of Jump, Honk, Scoop, Scan and Aim for next target was pleasantly interrupted by the indication of two Notable Stellar Phenomena. They turned out to be two Proto-Lagrange Clouds filled with Rubeum Metallic Crystals. On approach they look rather unimpressive, but when you get closer you suddenly realise how big they really are. The longest spikes are easily longer than my Krait Phantom. Very impressive.

After that it was back to the usual routine with which does become a somewhat tiring monotony at the end of the day. And shortly before I wanted to stop for the night I must have fallen asleep for a second or two although the approach to a Water World should be interesting enough. In any case I was awakened by the bang of the emergency drop which got me scrambling. Fortunately enough it was just a planet this time, so I could spare the heatsink which I may have not gotten off in time. All in all it went rather well, just some minor damage. That will be easily fixed at Hillary Depot, a planetary outpost I hopefully will reach today.

Visited Systems: 67

Highlights: First Discoveries of Complete Systems

Although it is clear that I am roughly following a beaten path towards Colonia the exact paths plotted towards it are only roughly identical. Especially since I use economic travel plotting, which means I'll probably hit a lot more systems than most travellers going that direction. Also the distances between the stations and outposts are now more than 1.000 lys, which means I have to segment them manually. It may therefore not be too surprising that I actually have passed through some systems already where nobody has been before. Not even the stars of the system had been discovered. Granted, none of these systems have been very exciting, but it is not the goal of this journey to find those (I'll be happy if I do, no doubt). The main goal is to get experience with this sort of endeavour and to contribute to the overall knowledge about our galaxy.

Visited Systems: 85

Highlights: Arrival Star Emergency Drop, Mammon

April 23 was a bummer. After my first night in deep space the ship's computer was uncooperative. Probably that emergency drop a few systems back. The sensor software had failed (no orbital lines either) and before I knew it I was in for a hot surprise. Luckily I could get off a heatsink, but the ship still took some minor damage before I could get away from the star. I rebooted the sensors and they were back to normal after that, but possibly the CPU experienced a glitch which only showed up after coming back from the overnight stand-by the next morning. It took me most of the day to get it back into working order. The repair exhausted me so much that I decided to spend another night on the spot and to continue towards Mammon only the next morning.

Around noon of the following day I finally got sight of the Mammon Monitoring Facility, a deep space outpost located within an Asteroid which itself is part of a ring around Mammon 2. It is a spectacular sight because on top of the location the whole system is in the middle of the IC 1287 Nebula, which paints most of the sky in beautiful colours.

A message from Falcon DeLacy awaited me there to point out some hardware retrofits, which would result in some general improvements and as a consequence I would also gain an additional class 1 slot. Alas, the station does not offer any Outfitting Services, which also dashed my hopes of improving some of my sensors.

Unfortunately the station does not offer much comfort apart from its setting. Once the ship repairs were done and the heatsink launcher restocked I didn't really see much reason to hang around. After a good meal I got into my pilot seat again to continue with my journey. My goal for the remaining day then became to reach HD 166897, an intersting system with two white-blue stars and plenty of brown dwarfs. I managed to get there and stopped for the night.

Visited Systems: 129

Highlights: Bark Mounds, ELW, Complete System Discovery (except Star)

I had hoped to reach Mammon today, but there were some delays. I discovered my first Earth-like World, which needed detailed scanning, also some more Water Worlds and a couple of Ammonia Worlds. One moon needed closer inspection because it showed Biological Signals. I found some Bark Mounds. Surprisingly I did find already some systems where I was the first one to scan them. I had not expected that so soon. I guess the raises the bar to find a pristine system where not even the star(s) of it have been discovered by someone else. But considering I am essentially following a beaten path towards Colonia I do not expect that to happen very soon. In any case the necessity to sleep caught up with me and I had to take a rest in deep space, something I am sure I will get accustomed to over time. At the moment it is still a new experience since up till now I enjoyed the comforts of a station every night.

Visited Systems: 36

Highlights: None

Although I barely reached the outside of the bubble I found a few systems where not all bodies where mapped. All were discovered, of course, but I used the opportunity not only to re-scan the high profit worlds (some water and ammonia worlds), but also mapped some bigger worlds for the first time. Obviously there is no comparison to be a first discoverer, however, I assume that this will not happen to me for some time. But I am sure looking forward to this moment as every explorer does, and even better landing on such a body the first time.

Until that time it is down to the mundane work of going from system to system and looking for interesting things.