RR LAIR Expedition

Current phase: First scouts departed

Departure date: Anytime you'd like :-) The reality is the Lower Angustia region is completely unknown. So scouting ahead in our own pace can only benefit everyone. But for sure the waypoints will be meeting places as well. Nobody is rushing and we'll wait for each other once we know you are coming.

What is an inspection?

An "inspection" is a rock rat survey for jumponium systems, that means finding interesting POIs but also doing shenanigans :)

An example can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XRZw_9ohDg where we inspected "The Gift" system (see result at https://www.edsm.net/en/galactic-mapping#4/280/0/14480|jumponiumRichSystem|528).

Outfitting

Besides the usual exploration choices, we chose to bring repair limpets and a xeno scanner with us.

You decide what you bring, but realise the Angustia region is considered hazardeous, so some decent jump range is probably going to help a lot.

Example outfittings:

• Baroness Galaxy: https://eddp.co/u/af7VpUXT
• Lyneira: https://eddp.co/u/gnxSaKvQ

Current Rock Rats

Baroness Galaxy, Lyneira, Zaph Nova, TwoFingers, Marlon Blake, Michael Darkmoor, Eisen

Route description

Based on https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/380756-Mission-Help-Find-Jumponium-Rich-Systems-for-The-Galactic-Mapping-Project this inspection covers 4 regions:

• The Orio-Persean Gap
• The Via Maris region
• The Formidine Rift region
• The Lower Angustia region

The Orio-Persean Gap is the inter-arm gap between the Orion Spur and the Perseus arm, roughly 2.500 LY wide. It is home to a large variety of nebulae, black holes, and star clusters - including Barnards Loop and the Orion stellar nursery.

Via Maris (Way of the Sea) is a region across the southwestern Perseus arm, which may one day be a place containing trade routes linking the permit sectors, Bovomit, Sidgoir, and Froadik to human colonized space. The name was chosen by Erimus, based on an ancient trade route, dating from the early Bronze Age, linking Egypt with the northern empires of Syria, Anatolia and Mesopotamia — modern day Iran, Iraq, Israel, Turkey and Syria.

The Formidine Rift needs no introduction. There is a full explanation on it via the Galactic Map, we will only pass by it briefly at WP12 to check the depot and nearby surroundings.

But the real jewel lies beyond the Formidine Rift and is located in the interarm void between the Perseus Arm and the Outer Arm: the Lower Angustia (Anguish) region. Only a few explorers have ever traversed this bleak expanse, and little is known of what may be found there. The region has been named as such by Drew Wagar himself.

Lower Angustia Region (the area from -20,000, 0 to -30,000, 10,000)

Querying EDSM on this region shows how sparse the data we have on it is. The south-east border of this region is known as the Wredgoae sector. If we go 10000 LY towards the west we encounter the Cyuefai sector. We will reach the South-East border at WP11.

We also know that a jumponium depot named "El Dorado" was found in the Upper Angustia Region at Blooe Phroo VO-P d6-6 (32,090.38 ly from Sol) (by CMDR ?).

Waypoints

These are not mandatory to follow but if you call yourself a rock rat you must follow 2 of them :-) (WP0 Chertan & WP1 Cave Nebula)

These are just POI's I chose from the GMP because I saw them on route towards the Via Maris / Angustia region.

There was also recently a jumponium depot reported in the Via Maris region so that must mean rock rat inspection ! :-) But we can also encounter 4 very large stars that are interesting to visit (V509 Cassiopeiae, VV Cephei, Mu Cephei and RW Cephei) and of course a few nebula's ;-)

Starting Location - Chertan

Theta Leonis (θ Leonis, abbreviated Theta Leo, θ Leo), also named Chertan, is a star in the constellation of Leo. It is the home system of the Rock Rats :) It's name is derived from the Arabic al-kharātān 'two small ribs', which refers to the location this bright star takes within the Leo constellation.

WP01 - The Cave Nebula (2,394.44 ly)

How can our first waypoint NOT start with CAVE ? :D

The actual name is Sh2-155 (also designated Sharpless 155 or S155) and is a diffuse nebula in the constellation Cepheus, within a larger nebula complex containing emission, reflection, and dark nebulosity. The name "Cave Nebula" was coined by Patrick Moore, presumably derived from photographic images showing a curved arc of emission nebulosity corresponding to a cave mouth.

WP02 - VV Cephei (2,452.39 ly)

VV Cephei, also known as HD 208816, is an eclipsing binary star system located in the constellation Cepheus.

A double system of a red supergiant and a blue star. The red one has one of the biggest diameters ever measured at a star. If it would be at the place of the Sun, it would include the orbit of Saturn. Its capacity is nearly 20 billion times that of the Sun.

WP03 - RW Cephei (4,026.74 ly)

RW Cephei is an orange-red supergiant with rather uncertain properties, which is almost common for this kind of stars. The distance from us could be much lower as designated here. If it is correct, this is one of the largest stars and one of the most luminous red supergiants (or hypergiants) in our Milky Way. For such a star it is rather hot (4400 Kelvin) and could possibly still expand.

RW Cephei is the bright star at the left bottom.

WP04 - V509 Cassiopeiae (4,468.02 ly)

V509 Cas (or HD 217476 or HR 8752) is a yellow hypergiant, which semiregularly changes its brightness. It resembles to the bigger Rho Cas, which is nearly in the same direction. The state of evolution of V509 Cas is unknown. Maybe it has just started to become a red supergiant, maybe it is shortly before collapsing.

WP05 - Mu Cephei (5,930.26 ly)

Mu Cephei (μ Cep, μ Cephei), also known as Herschel's Garnet Star, is a red supergiant star in the constellation Cepheus. It appears garnet red and is located at the edge of the IC 1396 nebula.

Optional - Scheau Phoe NB-M c24-7

About 4k into the Formidine Rift you can optionally visit this system if you want. CMDR Lyneira discovered this POI and it looks very cool (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4OThKEPYlo) and who knows if it might have changed by now ?

WP06 - Csi+50-22218 (9,400.01 ly)

IC 5217 is a planetary nebula and is found in the constellation of Lacerta. The first discovery was made by William Paton Stevens Fleming in 1904. The main star is a Wolf-Rayet Star with a solar mass of 1.21 and a solar radius of 5. Other objects in the system are 2 Class V giants and 2 massive ringed HMC.

WP07 - Ridgue AW-E d11-68 (11,284.84 ly)

Via Maris jumponium depot inspection.

WP08 - "The Far Bridge" Pria Eup TD-T d3-8 (18,836.82 ly)

This system is on the other side of Via Maris and is very close to our final destination.

It acts as a waypoint marker for a region of high star density between the Perseus Arm and the Outer Arm, approximately 8,000-10,000 LYs east of the Formidine Bridge. This bridge of stars allows for easy crossing of the Formidine Rift by ships with a jump-range of 25 LYs or higher. It's length of approximately 3,400 LYs makes it interesting for those travelers who decide to go corewards from the Rim.

WP09 - Wredgoae NE-G C24-2 (20,027.42 ly)

South-East border of the Lower Angustia region. Reaching this point opens up scouting the region and looking for interesting systems and jumponiump depots.

The final destination :-)