Distance Covered in Total: 18,211 lys

Visited Systems Today: 31

Highlights Today: 2 Black Holes, 2 Ammonia Worlds, Reached the "Top"

I reached the "Top" today. Interestingly enough it was a lonely B-class star, similar to when I had arrived at my initial bottom target. There, however, I was able to push on a little more, but this time nothing was in reach for my ship. The closest star further up was about another 150 lys away, which is beyond my Premium FSD range of about 118 lys. Oh well, this never was a systematic effort. Rather it was simply trying to see how far I could get with my Krait Phantom. With that I logged a height of +2850.90625 lys above the galactic plane.

I also must have scratched the Western Neutron Fields again (this time the top section), since the number of Neutron Stars and White Dwarfs was higher than usual on the final jumps. I even managed to discover two Black Holes along the way and two more system each having an Ammonia World. And of course the usual share of Water Worlds.

Since there was nothing to do here (except taking pictures of our galaxy) I punched in the next POI. It turned out the route planner was not able to plot a direct route, I had to pick a system some distance before that. Not sure why, but no matter, that way I found some Black Holes in the Galaxy Map to aim for. With that I started my descent, first having to backtrack a couple of systems before I was back in discovery mode.

That leaves only one thing to add: I started collecting photographs of ringed Icy Bodies (or Rocky Bodies, although they are rather rare). I find these rings often more intriguing than the rather common gas planet rings. So if something nice pops up in the FSS and the distance is manageable I'll take a little photo shoot detour now.

Distance Covered in Total: 16,241 lys

Visited Systems Today: 21

Highlights Today: Black Hole, Earth-like World

The exploration routine was interrupted today by the second discovery of a Black Hole. The system had four bodies in total, one lonely planet orbiting the Black Hole, another lonely planet orbiting a Neutron Star which was also present in the system. Towards the end of the day I then found a system with an Earth-like World, this one rather small though.

And finally I surpassed the 25,000 lys distance limit from the Sun. An arbitrary number in a way, but still. The more interesting number will be 100,000 lys travelled, a milestone I may just reach when I arrive at Sag A*.

All in all I would say it was a pretty good day.

Distance Covered in Total: 15,035 lys

Visited Systems Today: 40

Highlights Today: 1 AW, 1 ELW, Hot Jovian, Three Little Pigs

I've reached the Three Little Pigs today. The systems has a Black Hole at the arrival point and three Neutron Stars. According to an ancient fable there is a wolf who devours three pigs after some intricate dialog just as the black hole will possibly devour the neutron stars eventually. You get the picture.

On my way there I discovered also a nice ringed Ammonia World and a bit later on another Earth-like World. There was also a White Dwarf system which had a close L-class dwarf (48 ls), which in turn was orbited by a very close class III gas giant (close as in 2 ls). These constellations are known as Hot Jovians, meaning Jupiter-like planets with unusual high surface temperature. The high surface temperature is of course due to the very small distance of such a planet to its central star, since Jovians are normally orbiting way beyond the habitable zone. Insofar they constitute an uncommon configuration.

Since the Three Little Pigs are already at about 2,400 lys above the galactic plane it was to be expected that going up further would already prove challenging. After some study of the galaxy map I finally chose a target at about +2,830 lys in the hope that I can add some additional distance once I am there, similar to my experience below. The target is also in the general direction of my next POI, which will be Ivan Almar's Dream, so I need to go quite a bit horizontally as well, again only slowly closing in. From there I will then cut back to Explorer's Anchorage and Sag A*.

But first let's see how far up I can go up.

Distance Covered in Total: 13,524 lys

Visited Systems Today: 34

Highlights Today: 1 Earth-like World

Today was simply about going up. The only notable events, if you want to call them that way, were passing through a cloud of K-class stars at about -800 lys, one of them hosting an Earth-like World, a terraformable Water World and a regular Water World. I also did pass through the plane and at the end of the day I stopped at +1,136 lys above.

Tomorrow I should reach the POI and the we'll see how much further up I can make it from there.

Distance Covered in Total: 11,412 lys

Visited Systems Today: 39

Highlights Today: 2 Earth-like Worlds, 2 Black Holes

Today's ascent started with two Black Holes in a row. I was not surprised to discover that both had been tagged already by the same explorer who also was first on my "Bottom" system. Still, Black Holes are always special and I scanned and mapped the rest of the systems as both had only its stars marked as discovered. But when reaching the third system (a class A star) I was back to be first. It emphasises the sheer number of stars when you visit a POI or simply a place where somebody has been before and as soon as you move away from it, sometimes even just one system, you are suddenly first visitor, at least when well outside the bubble.

The rest of the day was going up rather straight and not much happened except two systems I found each with one Earth-like world. In fact both (though separated by several systems) were pretty much alike: About two thirds of Earth's mass, the rest of the parameters pretty close to Earth, one of them somewhat to warm, but otherwise quite inviting. There were also several Water Worlds in other systems, but these are meanwhile fairly common, so I only mention them if some special configuration is found.

At the end of the day I was about at -800 lys, I think I will pass the galactic plane tomorrow and then continue up, but will not reach my target until in two days as it is located at about +2,400 lys above the plane.

Distance Covered in Total: 9,642 lys

Visited Systems Today: 25

Highlights Today: Black Hole, Hit Bottom, Biological Signals

As planned for today I reached the system at -2,900 lys (hosting a lonely B-class star). I clearly touched on the Western Neutron Fields as the non-sequence stars seemed to outnumber the sequence stars. Neutron Stars and White Dwarfs were in the majority and only occasionally a G, K or A star provided opportunity for refuel. To be on the safe side I used stars farther off for re-fuel if they were available in a reasonable distance from a non-sequence arrival star. Major highlight in that list was another Black Hole. This time the system was a bit more interesting than my first one, since it had two Neutron stars, each of them coupled with two sequence stars, one with a pair of K-class stars, the other one with a F- and G-class star. No planetary bodies though.

Of course I made a final attempt to squeeze out a few more lightyears further down and I was able to do that. In fact I held off with re-fueling since that could impact my reach ever so slightly. My first extension was a Neutron Star only about 50 lys away. Either I missed it the first time around or the route plotter refused to accept it, because it was clearly a regular jump to there with a fuel star right before it. Anyways, since the current system had nothing to offer apart from its arrival star I quickly jumped there knowing that I could easily get back. I was now at -2904.875 and the system had three High Metal Content Worlds, but none of them landable.

Again I stared at the galaxy map for minutes turning it here and there and lo and behold there was another system about 117 lys away. I did a quick calculation and yes I could reach it with a Premium FSD boost (my standard jump range is 58.8 lys) even without the fact that my jump range was slightly higher due to less fuel in the tank. Biggest surprise though was that I could there even with regular jumps, but I would have to make a detour of about 10 jumps (going back up a bit and then down again). I wanted to avoid that though if possible. So I spent another 10 minutes or so checking out the stars around my new target which had plenty of Neutron Stars, White Dwarfs and even a couple of Black Holes.

I was sure that I wouldn't get stuck by using the boost since there was a regular route and the target star was in fact an O-class star, but I just wanted to make sure. Eventually I was satisfied and did my first FSD Boost, hard to believe but true. With the arrival I finally hit the bottom of my journey, now being -2922.4375 lys below the galactic plane. Which I've reached without neutron star boost, though equipped with an engineered drive and a Guardian FSD booster.

It turned out the system held a couple of surprises for me. Ever since I left Colonia I only passed through newly discovered systems (except for the well-known POIs), yet another Commander had beaten me to this one. I only can assume that it was an early explorer, possibly looking specifically for O-class stars, since the galactic database had the name attached only to the arrival star. In those times the scanning equipment was rather rudimentary and discovery accordingly much more difficult than today. My own scan revealed that the system has also six T-Tauri stars and three Metal-rich Bodies (all of them landable) and one High Metal Content World (not landable). I mapped all four and then landed on the one farthest out (9 a) simply because it had the lowest gravity which made it easier. I am pretty sure the galaxy above me looks the same on each of them, besides (another surprise) of all systems I have come through since Colonia, this was the first one to show biological signals! So not only did I get a spectacular view, that view was enhanced by a field of Prasinum Bioluminescent Anemones.

I took out my SRV and drove around a bit, taking pictures and enjoying the scenery. What a worthy conclusion of this bit of my trip. I would spend the night right here and tomorrow, tomorrow I would ascend again and aim for the opposite side. My first target "in sight" is The Three Little Pigs, a POI almost directly above me, yet about 5,500 lys away.

Distance Covered in Total: 7,973 lys

Visited Systems Today: 43

Highlights Today: Black Hole, some Water Worlds

I am getting closer to my target system. Although I repeatedly checked the galaxy map I cannot find anything deeper so far that I could reach with my ship. Any plotting attempt to any star I can identify on an even lower level simply fails. So I'll have to be content with the -2,900 lys below which I should reach today if everything goes alright.

Apart form Water Worlds the journey offered today mostly minor highlights in the form of Neutron Stars and White Dwarfs. They always cause some tension for me at the arrival point, but so far I fortunately had no incidental collisions with cones of either sort.

A big suprise, considering I was not actively looking for it, was one system which had a Black Hole at the arrival point. It is my first newly discovered Black Hole and I was rather excited about it. The system contained also two Brown Dwarfs and two Icy Bodies.

Distance Covered in Total: 5,005 lys

Visited Systems Today: 28

Highlights Today: 1 Earth-like World

As I continue slowly with my descent the galactic body becomes ever more prominent. I did find a nice system with a Water World and an Earth-like World, which is always a nice find. In particular this ELW, although only about half the mass of Earth, had an atmosphere that was quite close in its Nitrogen/Oxygen ratio to Earth's values and even the gravity was rather close. In fact all parameters suggested that one probably could land and step out of the ship without any special precautions (ignoring indigenous micro and macro life for the moment).

One more system with an Ammonia World and a couple of systems with Water Worlds were the result of the remainder of this day. I spent some more time with the navigation computer, but could not find a lower target I could possibly reach. I may launch a separate expedition focusing only on such a goal, but it also could mean to use the infamous Anaconda for that and get involved with Neutrons star boosts to have the maximum possible jump distance and really be able to reach further down.

Distance Covered in Total: 3,745 lys

Visited Systems Today: 21

Highlights Today: None

I continued my descent down to the -2,000 lys mark. There are still plenty of stars at this level, so the route plotter did not even flince when it calculated it. I stopped one system before this intermediate target though, because the last jump would have only been about 36 lys whereas my ship's jumprange is about 58 lys. I then spent about an hour in front of the navigation computer. As was to be expected the lower my aim went the fewer stars were even visible. And most of them were simple not reachable even with the FSD Boost parameter set to premium. In the end I had to settle for a system at -2,900 lys and it was far off towards the galactic core. Going straight down towards Mariana would have brought me to about -2,700 and something.

That means my course has now changed from going straight down to a shallow descent bringing me from -1,990 towards -2,900 lys below the galactic plane while covering a distance of about 5,000 lys, which equates to about 100 jumps.

Distance Covered in Total: 2,813 lys

Visited Systems Today: 29

Highlights Today: Priapus' Heaven, 1 ELW discovered

My next waypoint was Priapus' Heaven (Agnaiz FR-V d2-1444), which I had selected for two reasons. Firstly, it hosted three Earth-like Worlds, again two of them in a binary orbit and the third one also tidally locked. Basically the same setup as with the Triplet except this time Earth-like instead of Ammonia Worlds. Secondly the system was nicely situated on my way down (at around 900 lys below the galactic plane).

My next waypoint is in fact Mariana (Syrumbi YE-A g4), one of the lowest visited systems in our galaxy (if in fact not the lowest one at the moment). I am pretty sure that I cannot reach that system, but it serves as a lighthouse with the goal to reach at least the -3,000 ly marker. We'll see whether I can achieve that or not considering I have only Jumponium at my disposal. And yes, right after that I will try to do the opposite. But first I'm going down as much as my Krait Phantom will carry me. The currently plotted route will bring me to -2,000 ly. The single highlight so far has been the discovery of another Earth-like World, not much else. Let's see what the next day has to offer.