CMDR BioEgo のプロフィール > 航海日誌

プロフィール
コマンダー名:
現在の船:
starfish [BI-11B]
(Beluga Liner)
 
メンバー登録日:
2020/12/09
 
入力した距離:
0
 
訪れた星系:
3,063
初めて発見した星系:
1,608
 
口座残高
984,380,492 Cr
Sunclipse

Today I found an event I had never witnessed. I mean it's pretty obvious that in multi-star systems those stars are going to eclipse each other, and that somewhere there would be a planet where you can observe that event.... but for me it was the first time so I'm pretty excited! I'm not really sure how this phenomena are officially named, but I decided for "sunclipses"....it sounds just right to me :)

I found this landable planet with an active volcanic hotspot in a perfect position to witness the (relatively) small K-class yellow/orange star trying to eclipse (with little success I dare say) its massive F-class White star partner.

The light from the F star is drowning out almost completely the smaller partner, but thanks to the smoke from a close by geyser the contrast is raised enough to make out the shape of the K star on the lower right of the pair.

I was lucky enough to also have the moon of this planet rising just above the horizon just to make this picture perfect.

I think I'll stop here for today relaxing and basking in this beautiful scenario.

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Dark skyes

For us pilots the sky over and around me is what is called an area mostly devoid of stars. True is not like the faint and sparse edges of the galaxy, but still star density here in the Rift is definitely lower to what pilots are used to, even in the Bubble, and practically empty if compared to Colonia or the Core.

Still when looking at it I do not find it so strange or unusual. My birth place was heavily light-polluted, that's one of the drawbacks of growing close to an industrial city. Sure you have all the most fancy modern commodities: fast network connections, all the main shops are close-by, effective public transportation networks..... everything but a clear view of the sky.

Even on clear nights, the sky was always glowing of the faint yellowish lights of the city, even though I lived a few kilometers outside. You could make out only the most luminous stars and constellations, but nothing more than that. Not even the diffuse light of the galaxy was discernible.

And so here I am, on a strange and lifeless world, looking up to a sky which is eerily familiar if it wasn't for the big shiny streak of light of the galactic disk: all those stars, once so close to me and yet invisible are now far away, but my eyes are finally able to see them.

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The simple joys of life

I'm finally back into uncharted space. I'm moving toward the Outer Arm, but at the same time I'm also moving upward from the galactic plane and this is increasing my chance of mapping new systems.

Just today I found 31 never before explored systems!

There was nothing extremely exotic or notewhorty from a planetary point of view, but still it's nice to see new places, knowing no-one else has ever seen them before.

Even simple views like a ringed class I gas giant which seems full of water and clouds, or the view from a ringed HMC world become awe-inspiring when they are totally new.

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Oh and I also found the time to take a selfie before logging off for a bit of shuteye :)

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Here be ghosts

I finally made it to the Zurara, the core mystery of the Rift.

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This ship is beautiful but it is also scary....listening to the last logs of its crew is really like visiting an haunted ship.

I also took the opportunity to land on a nearby carrier for a few repairs and to sell the exploration data to UC. (note to self: next time double check the fees, I "lost" almost 25% of my earnings from this trip, which amounts to several millions credits :( ).

Now it is time to plan the next part. The idea of making it to the Outer Arm and exploring it still entice me, but I'd like to try to make it as off-plane as possible to see if I can find a less explored area. Still I need to be careful not to put myself in a cul-de-sac from which I cannot escape with my jump range.

I foresee lots of planning ahead :/

Triplet

Getting closer to the Zurara.

I found this interesting planetary triplet: three terraformable water worlds orbiting a common baricenter in close formation.

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I'm pondering on a plan for the next trip: continuing further outward through the Rift till I reach the Outer Arm, and then following it clockwise across the western meridian and almost to the rift where it joins the Norma Arm and reenter the main disk towards Colonia.

It might be a long way....I'll need to set a few waypoints in order to make it more interesting!

Feeling blue

Sometimes you find yourself in places that strangely fit your feelings quite well. I'm almost halfway to the Zurara and I'm in an area of the galaxy that is a bit below my expectations.

After an initial moment of fear and thrill when I wasn't sure my ship and my navigational skills were fully up-to-task, I now discovered that this area is actually far less difficult to navigate. Also most of the systems are main sequence and already been explored. Not that this is surprising considering the amount of lore of the Rift and the fact that there have been several expeditions here.

Still I'm a bit bored, for now I'll stick to the plan, but for the next part of the trip I'll need to find something a bit more challenging.

And while pondering on such slightly depressing thoughts I found a planet that gives an entire new meaning to "feeling a bit blue". It's a small icy world, about 3KLs from its star, a Class M Red Dwarf....and it's completely blue.

I took this picture at close to local noon: a blue wasteland, empty, stretching to the horizon and above it the almost starless sky of the Rift (well, yeah I know....if I look behind me I'll see the galactic disk....but hey I don't want to ruin the mood here ;) ).

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Unimpressed

I reached my waypoint: Maia's Jewel (Schee Hypa KN-S e4-0)....and I was not that impressed.

I mean, I get it, from an astronomical point-of-view it is interesting with a protostar being orbited by a T-Tauri binary-pair and 9 gas giants, it makes for an interesting system, a very young one if I interpret the data correctly. Still nothing very impressive from a visual point of view.

Maybe I was a bit tired, maybe I missed something...or maybe it's just me.

Anyway, back on track, next waypoint: the Zurara.

It's going to be a trickier route, deeper in the Rift, but I'm getting the hang of it now. I'm starting to feel more confident on the capabilities of the Wanderer, and while I still plan to improve it a bit further as soon as I get back to the Bubble, it might be not as soon as I was thinking. I'll probably spend the next days until I reach my destination on the maps plotting several alternative routes...just to see where I can get!

Crossing another border

I've now entered the Formidine Rift region. It is a bit strange since I've passed the Poseidal Wall which stands as a sort of northern boundary to the Rift by quite a significant number of light-years by now, but hey it is what it is....now I can rightfully claim to be in the Rift :)

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The new route seems to be ok, I've also learned that by managing fuel I can avoid using jumponium since my range increases with the diminished mass of the ship due to fuel consumption. It makes me a little anxious, I was used to scoop every time I met a suitable star, but it seems this way I can squeeze a little more from the Wanderer....hopefully if my calculations are right and I don't miss a refueling step I shouldn't need the help of the Fuel Rats.

Stumbling

It seems that I miscalculated something when planning the route. Turns out that I cannot make it to Lumina Caelum, I simply do not have enough range even using 100% FSD-Injection.

I've switched to the next waypoint: Maia's Jewell. From there the plan is to get all the way to the Zurara and then back to the Heart Nebula to land at Farsight Expedition Base. It'll take me at least 60 injections to do that so I'll have to stock up on materials along the way.

After that I'll head back to the Bubble to further improve the Wanderer: I like this ship and I plan on visiting a lot more places with it, but to venture further into the outer edges of the galaxy it still lacks a bit of range.

So let's start this adventure :)

Dancing in the dark

I'm on route to my next waypoint in the Rift: Lumina Coelum (Hypoae Aescs AA-A h0).

For the first time I'm starting to understand what it feels like to venture in the dark, away from the densely star filled areas of the arms or the core. Up until now I could always choose to go the slow way, using only my standard jump-reach, or go faster using a neutron-star. But whatever I choose I've always known I could easily reach a nearby scoopable star without assistance, or that I was able to go back from where I started.

Now things are getting a bit difficult: to reach my waypoint I'll have to use a few FSD injections, otherwise there are no available routes for me, not even using neutron stars. For the time being I'm pretty confident: I just need a handful of basic injections and I have materials enough for five times what I need. I'm also stopping en-route to fill my supplies and stock on a bit of the needed materials for the more advanced injections.

Still I'll have to plan carefully if I want to go all the way to the Zurara...and also go back home. For the first time I'm not sure if I'll be able to make all the way there. I will spend a bit more time on the charts, studying and plotting every possible route before going on.

It's frightening....but also thrilling: this is the essence of being an explorer, trying to reach your limit and seeing if you can push it a bit further!