I left the Phoenix Nebula behind and headed for Poseidon's Fury.

58 jumps later, I arrived.

As described in the EDSM entry, the rings of planet B 10 are quite impressive.

I'd love to be able to drive the SRV down into the crater, but it's too late tonight (tired), and in any case I really have to fly on to keep up with the fleet.

About 800Ly from the Phoenix Nebula I felt sure there was a face looking back at me!

A few more jumps and I arrived.

Not a lot to look at here.

I got more than half-way towards the Phoenix Nebula tonight. Early on I noticed I was flying towards a nebula and thought I'd be flying past it. It turns out that it is my intended destination, visible from more than 4000Ly away.

It's not worth a photo, being just a small red blob.

I logged on, as expected, to a deserted meetup site. I took the time to take a few extra photos. The parent body 2 d was low on the horizon.

The Morphenniel Nebula was huge overhead - I needed a portrait orientation to fit it in.

The nearby Bark Mounds had been stripped of any materials. All that was left to do was plan the next stage of my journey. It's a big two weeks of travelling to the next waypoint. I'll be heading to the Phoenix Nebula first, then Poseidon's Fury, and then Aristo. That should keep me occupied for the next few days.

First stop was the Magnus Nebula. This nebula snuck up on me - I was expecting something smaller and when I was still a couple of jumps away I didn't realise I was already in it! The best place to get a picture of it is at least 50Ly away. The picture below is at about 100Ly.

The next POI was Infinite Bonds, a pair of co-orbiting Earth-Like worlds.

The next challenge was to get to Neighbouring Necklaces. The permit restricted sectors Bleia3 and Bleia5 were blocking the direct path, so I started off finding a point 'south' of them (towards the galactic core) as an in-between point to aim for, then a second, before the route plotter would find a path. I got there eventually.

I was a bit careless landing and knocked over 50% off my shields - that's what they're there for!

Second last POI before WP10 was the Eos Nebula.

Somewhere on the way I passed 1,000,000Ly travelled in the game.

In that system I found a Luteolum Lagrange Storm Cloud with Solid Mineral Spheres and Rubeum Metallic Crystals.

It's been a few days since my last untagged ELW, but I found one! This one was co-orbiting with a High Metal Content world.

I finally arrived at WP10, the Morphenniel Nebula, and I finally found some other Cmdrs to talk to!

I don't think I've seen anyone since WP3. I also got my first customer for a hull repair limpet. Congratulations to Cmdr Green Arkleseizure for being my first (and hopefully happy) customer.

Day 82 was a very short play session, just a few jumps really.

Day 83 I arrived at The Briar Patch Nebula. It's just a single neutron star, so not too exciting for a photo, so I poked around nearby system for something better. I eventually ended up at some Sulphur Dioxide Fumaroles at Geological 3 on Hypuae Briae CQ-X d1-1263 A 2.

Next stop was The Zinnia Haze.

Last thing for the evening was the leg out to the Hydrangea Nebula.

It's one of the pretty red/green nebulas.

Well, I managed to stuff up my visit to the Biological POI on the 10.66G Phroi Bluae IR-W f1-1530 AB 1.

I first landed, carefully of course, with just a small boop that dropped my shields to 87%.

I used the camera to look around, and grabbed a photo of the glowing Prasinum Bioluminescent Anemones.

And then I left. As soon as I hit supercruise I realised my stuff-up - I'd forgotten to scan the site! So I simply had to turn around and do it all again. This time I landed without dropping the shields even 1%.

I stopped for the night at Undine Haven, a neutron star system where one of the stars has six Water Worlds and an HMC all terraformable!

High-G Techniques

High-gravity worlds can be scary if you're not sure how to fly there. Any ship can land on a high-G world. All thrusters are magically capable of handling any G. My Beluga is configured with the usual explorer technique of using the smallest D-class thrusters that will fit, 6D in my case.

Landing

The landing technique is simple, but do a trial run on a low-G world first! Configure a button for Flight Assist in Hold mode NOT Toggle. Do the usual supercruise and glide in. Don't glide too steep or you might take too long to level out. About 20° down is good. As soon as the glide ends, pull up, level out, zero the throttle, and deploy landing gear. From now on, keep your ship level at all times. Turn by yawing only, don't roll or pitch up or down.

Land by tapping the Flight Assist button. Keep the taps as short as possible. Each tap will increase your vertical speed down. Try to keep it to 10-20 to start, slowing down as you get closer to the surface. Eventually you'll reach the altitude where the radar indicates a good landing spot. Use the throttle to go backwards and forwards and yaw to turn to find a spot. Stay level! When you've found a spot, tap Flight Assist until you land.

Take-Off

Taking off is a bit more simple. Just use the vertical thrust up control. You will continue holding the thrust up full up until just before you activate supercruise. If the gravity is high it might take a while to actually lift off - you will get there eventually. Once you're clear of the surface, go full forward throttle while keeping vertical up thrust full on. Stay level! Once you reach maximum velocity, pull the ship up to vertical 80-90° then release the vertical up thrust. On a high-G world your ship will slow right down, maybe even start going backwards! Don't panic - stay vertical, hit boost if you like. Your ship will start going forwards and up again. Wait until you reach maximum velocity, by which time you will have left mass lock and then supercruise away.

First thing I set off for WP9 - Cerulean Tranquility. By this time I was 3 days late. This system is a neutron star inside a blue nebula. WP9 was on 3 a.

As I approached the planet I started seeing motion in front of me. At the same time I realised it was the rings of planet 3, I collided with them and emergency dropped - another couple of percent off things...

WP 9 is at Geological 4, Sulphur Dioxide Fumaroles. It was nicely lit, the brown of the surface looked very nice against the blue of the nebula. The gas giant on the horizon was a bonus.

After all the hyperjumping I've been doing, I couldn't resist a drive down that canyon. It was wide and flat - a very nice drive. I ended up in a bit of a basin about 24km north of the fumaroles.

Last thing for the evening was to travel to Phroi Bluae IR-W f1-1530. The planet AB 1 has, at the time of writing this, the highest known gravity for a landable planet - 10.66G. I'll try landing first thing tomorrow when I'll be a bit more awake. The sole POI on the surface, a Biological one, seems a likely spot, assuming it will be lit.

Day 78 I climbed the peak next to where I logged off the night before.

The peak location is about -67.3/36.1. The top is probably just a little higher than 2km - I couldn't quite get to where it levelled off without worrying about if my Beluga would take off without me. I didn't want it doing that so close to the mountain. The slope was about 20° where I stopped, so I have no problem claiming a successful climb!

I returned to my Beluga and flew it up to see how far I got. It's a bit difficult to see, but I got quite close to the very top!

Day 79 I flew to Dances with Giants. This system has two pairs of gas giants orbiting close to each other. I was lucky to get the first pair A1/A2 in an alignment for a 'double sunrise'.

A4/A5 were not quite as close.

First off I tried looking for some lava spouts. The first site was more gas vents, but the second site I tried (#9), was Iron Magma Lava Spouts.

About 10 jumps towards the Forgotten Twins Nebula I found today's untagged Earth-like world.

Does that look a bit like a screaming face in the nebula?

Once in the nebula the sky became a beautiful blue-purple. I landed on the only landable body in the system and found a crater with a central peak that practically demands climbing in the SRV.

I don't know about that, I still have a long way to go.