Far out along the galactic rim, in the constellation of Cassiopeia, the Spongou nebula is a mostly unremarkable pink and blue planetary surrounding a black hole. There's little to see here unfortunately, but it served as a good mile-marker for the long journey back to more catalogued space.

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Another long stretch of unmarked and unexplored space which would take me back around to the far side of the Formidine Rift by following the outer galactic arm in a widdershins direction. Between The sparse western stars near Manifest Destiny, and the first major PoI on the return trip (The Spongou Nebula), there was a lot of jumping, in which I did a little surface exploration here and there, but mostly just binged Netflix. Along those barren stretches of space, between the few marked PoIs, I found a few interesting sights. Strange clouds on Gas Giants, close-orbiting Metal Worlds, Water Worlds, Fumaroles on an ice world, and even a third Earth-Like World, which I've named Tanakar (Hypua Hypooe BW-C D6 6). Sadly, for some reason I wasn't very diligent with my screenshots for this leg of the trip so there isn't much in that department.

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Just over 33kLy from home, I arrived in the Cyuefa RJ-I D9-0 system. Running low on Jump Drive Booster fuel, and with no sources of polonium in sight, the final legs to Manifest destiny looked to be too hazardous to make. I could have turned back, stocked up on Polonium and then returned but having been away from the game for nearly 4 months, the thought of painstakingly plotting routes through stars spaced 70-150 light years apart to wiggle my way out to Manifest Destiny didn't seem worth it. I was eager to head back and cash in the cartographic data. This final star on my westbound route measured 33053.16Ly from Sol. This was as far as I was going to get going this direction. The next phase of the trip would take me along the galactic outer arm towards the far side of the Formidine Rift.

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At this point in the journey there aren't very many known points of interest ahead of me. I still wanted to reach Manifest Destiny, but there isn't much to do on the way aside from the standard scanning and discovery of typical exploration. This turned out to be fairly rewarding however as I've secured discovery rights on several neutron stars and water worlds, a handful of ammonia planets and even two Earth-Like worlds which mark the second and third of this sort that I've managed to have my name on. I've decided to call the first planet Priscilla, (Prue Eohm FL-N D7-4 2), and the second one I've named Amelia (Dryoodea GA-C C27-0 A 1). My original hope was that in this long stretch I'd find some undiscovered planetary nebulae, but I suppose that might be too much to hope for. As sought after sites, I'm sure they've nearly all been found at this point. Especially along the Meridian, which is surely a more frequented route than the surrounding space.

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Much like many other planetary nebulae this one is not particularly visible from outside the host system, and from the inside it manifests as essentially just a coloured backdrop. Still this one had a fantastic emerald green and teal colour to it. And it had 4 planets, which is more than many planetary nebulae can claim, despite none of them being suitable for landings. I was able to get some nice views from the rings of one of the planets though.

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A planet of Astonishing topography. I was disappointed at first; The coordinates for the site logged on EDSM refer to a point which was in darkness when I arrived. As it turns out however, much of the planet has just as interesting topography, with enormous ice sheets slashed apart by great fissures and upthrusts, towering mountains and peculiar walls of ice stretching sometimes as high as 16km in altitude. This planet is one which I'd be content to explore for days on end. In fact I'd love to spend the time to locate the water vapour geysers which supposedly exist here according to the system map. The body is reasonably small at 800 and some kilometers in radius, but would still take quite some time to thoroughly search, not the least because of the sheer size of some of the cliffs. Finding a small patch of geysers at the bottom of one of those canyons would be a monumental task, complicated by the varied and rough terrain down there. Still, it would only serve to make an already fascinating place more worth visiting. I spent quite some time flying my fighter here, weaving in among the ice spires at the bottoms of great valleys and around the peaks of soaring mountains. The SRV proved a little more difficult to navigate with and it was exceptionally hard to resist doing some base jumping, especially at the places where the towering walls met the abyssal canyons. In these regions, the total drop from peak to valley could exceed 20km. I only had 2 SRVs though and didn't want to risk my spare this early in the trip.

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A Procedurally styled nebula, but nonetheless a pretty sight. The waypoint I set for observing this nebula originally was a neutron star just outside. It would make for a good launch point out of the area. The nebula itself isn't of much note. lots of stars and planets to view it from. There is another Neutron star near by though which was rather interesting. It's rotation speed was ludicrously fast, something like 30-50 times a second by my guess. Very violent and very terrifying. I usually don't think much of the neutron star boosting process, but out here, where a slip up will lose you millions and countless hours, it's a sobering sight.

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One of the biggest milestones for the early part of this trip, the bubble nebula was everything I had hoped. A fantastic Planetary with a ton of great viewing spots. It's pretty hard to get any view that isn't good. In my opinion though, the best place to see the Bubble Nebula though is from it's edge, where it seems to glow the brightest and occupies half the sky. A Landing viable world here makes a wonderful spot to take it in.

Bit of a trek to get there from Mu Cephei given the 2000Ly distance, but I suppose I should get used to long distances. Theres a lot of empty space between me and Manifest Destiny. At this point I suppose the best course of action is to try to find new PoI that aren't recorded yet. Planetary nebulae are hard enough to spot that I imagine there are many out there waiting to be found although they are also heavily sought after. Black holes, Earth-likes, neutron stars and such should all be abundant out there too.

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V509 Cassiopeiae - A White Supergiant, this star is visible for many lightyears as it's size is rather impressive. Not much of note in this system besides the star though. Sadly a screenshot like that below does little justice to the size of V509 Cas. The drop point for V509 Cas is a staggering 2500Ls from the star's center. That's about the distance from the Sun to Jupiter. 5 times further from the star than Earth is from our sun. However, it's immense size would still be dwarfed by the next Giant I had a look at.

Mu Cephei - A Red Supergiant. I thought V509 Cas was huge, but Mu Cephei absolutely dwarfs it. The drop point for this star is over 4500Ls away from it's center. Of note, there is actually another star in this system, Mu Cephei B, which is a comparatively minuscule little ember of a Red Dwarf. The Beta star also has a planet, which appears to be simply a Class I or II gas Giant. I would've gone and had a look were they not 250kLs away. Like V509 Cas, this system was relatively boring aside from the central star. The below picture was taken at around 2000, or 4 times Earth's distance from the Sun.

V509 Cas

Mu Cephei

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A vibrant blue planetary nebula with a typical wolf-rayet core, located a ways below the bow-tie sector from which I came. A rather common style of planetary nebula, but pretty nonetheless. Noteworthy is the fantastic viewpoint for this nebula located just a few light years away in a K class system. It's entirely possible that this system is a little out of the way on the path to the bubble nebula, but this trip is meant to be slow and meandering so it's no matter. I stopped at a few systems along the way here to gather Jumponium materials, including about 20 samples of Polonium. This will be of great use once I reach the distant and sparse western stars.

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