On the last day at WP2, I decided to finish the Anemone Botany Tour. That meant flying out to HD 172275 and then to Bleae Eurk FG-Y g2. My little bit towards the 250,000,000Ly target of Frontier's 25th anniversary unlock.

There are Prasinum Bioluminescent Anemones on ABC 2 a.

Note that you can see the reflection of ABC 2. It's an M-class star directly overhead only 6Ls away, yet the surface of the planet is pitch black! I really hope those "pitch black" folks are happy.

Still, the purple glow was quite pretty.

After a meal break, I returned to find the O-class "A" just rising:

So pink!

Last stop before returning to WP2 was Bleae Eurk FG-Y g2. On the only planet in the system you can find Puniceum Anemones. Probably any of the Biological sites will do, but I found them at #5.

On returning to WP2, I stopped by Omega Mining Operation to sell exploration and codex data, and give the ship a "once over".

Then it was off to the meetup on 7 b at Geological site #5 where the methane ice vents were quite active.

Soon afterwards quite a few commanders turned up.

While goofing around in my SRV I accidentally got myself stuck down an icy canyon close to the landing site. It took a lot of boosts to get out, but I came so close to losing my first SRV on any expedition. I accidently covered up my SRV by the tail of the solid arrow - it's so small! (And the canyon actually quite big)

A bit of a quiet day. Mostly just visited Byua Euq EG-Y e41 to see the Croceus anemones on B 3 a at Biological (2).

I then decided to see what was at some of the Geological sites. The next photo was at #4. The Beluga runs a bit hot, doesn't it?

... Ha ha ... not really ... my Beluga's heat was actually 11%.

I thought I'd end the night by finishing the Colours of Clouds tour. Trifid Sector DL-Y d157 has three Notable Stellar Phenomena POs. I saw Rubicundum Collared Pods in the first:

I discovered that you can take samples of pods with the Research limpet controller.

In the second were some Solid Mineral Spheres:

The third had Albidum Collared Pods:

Day 12 was the Anemone Botany Tour. This one is in PW2010 210 (The PW2010 Supercluster):

And this one in PW2010 299:

The blue Roseus Bioluminescent anemones on PW2010 112 were very striking:

The last stop were the Roseus Anemones on Traikaae CR-N e6-1:

Today I did the Colours of Clouds tour. First stop, Omega Sector DM-M b7-16 with Rubicundum and Roseum lagrange clouds.

I found Albulum Gourd Molluscs:

and Purpureum Metallic Crystals:

Next stop was the Caeruleum lagrange cloud in Omega Sector VJ-Q b5-6. More metallic crystals:

and Rufum Gourd Molluscs. These molluscs seemed to be attracted to my ship and emitted electric charges that slowly wore down my shields:

The Croceum cloud in 2MASS J18182881-1649403 was quite dark:

The last stop for the day were the Rubicundum and Luteolum clouds in Omega Sector AF-A d153. The solid mineral spheres produced small dust clouds:

Just finished contributing 1156T to the mining CG.

That got me into the top 25% and should net 35MCr.

The next activity is to do the Colours of Clouds tour, visiting six Langrange clouds in the area of WP2 before the meetup this weekend. There are four close to the Omega nebula and two more near the Trifid nebula.

Landed on Traikaae CH-Y c10 1 a - a moon of a gas giant with water-based life. It has spectacular deep spiky canyons that for the most part are impossible to land on. However, sometimes large open flat areas turn up, like this one at -56.95/28.93.

Next stop was Thor's Eye. I last visited on the original Distant Worlds Expedition. It's always cool to see the light distortions of a black hole.

Herschel 36 was the next POI to visit. Two O-class stars with a nice view of the Lagoon Nebula.

My final stop for the night was the Cinnabar Moth Nebula (Traikaae KT-P d6-10).

Tomorrow: the PW2010 supercluster and waypoint 2: The Omega Mining Operation.

I missed all the DW2 launches - had to go to bed several hours before the EU launch, the US launch was while I was at work, then the AU launch was while I was heading home from work. Sigh - I could have made the AU launch if it was 24hrs earlier on the Sunday afternoon/evening.

When I logged on the Pallaeni launch site was deserted and quiet. I took off and headed to the Shapley Fine Ring nebula.

I've been there a couple of times before, so I didn't do any sightseeing. Next stop was "The View" in HR 6164.

The planet doesn't have a particularly high gravity (IMHO), only 3.3G, but it seems to have caught out a few new explorers.

There is a Tourist Installation scarily close to a neutron star.

Next stop was "Cycladia" (Blu Thua GI-B b55-2), a system with a ringed Earth-like.

It was here that I parked up for the night.

Distant Worlds 2 is finally here! More than 11,000 commanders have signed up to travel across the galaxy to Beagle Point - what an amazing number. How many will survive - the distance, the boredom, the high-G worlds?

This is where I met up with a bunch of other commanders several hours prior to the EU launch. Someone brought a Guardian Key to play with - it's the bright glow in the center. Brooks Point settlement can be seen just to the right of center.

Another commander has the good taste to fly a Chromed Beluga:

The last big exploration trip was in my Anaconda. I'm really liking the cockpit view from the Beluga bridge. Big view, right at the front of the ship - I can fly right up to things for a good look. It can be a bit fiddly to land, though.

Before I head out on Distant Worlds 2, I thought I would stock up on whatever Thargoid materials I could easily pick up at the Thargoid sites.

They're very atmospheric and spooky! Highly recommend a visit. Bring a Sensor and Probe if you want to get into the central device.

On Christmas Eve I was looking at my Elite ranking for Trading and Exploration, and my 27% Deadly combat ranking. I decided the triple Elite decal would look really nice on my Distant Worlds 2 Beluga, and so I set about finishing that combat Elite.

I'd heard that targeting Thargoid Scouts was the fastest way to rank up in combat. I started in the Jormbu system while it was Infested, but when that expired and the scouts dried up I moved out towards the Pleiades.

I spent most of my time in 42 n Persei. Below is one my battles near the rings of 42 n Persei A 7, a very striking pink gas giant.

Frontier should arrange for more combat POIs near rings - they are spectacular!

Many, many scouts later: