Once again there was a few more uneventful visits to the following nebulas:

• B92
• Chamaeleon
• Corona Australis Dark Region
• Musca Dark Region
• Scorpius Dark Region

Then I hit Coalsack Dark Region. As pr standard procedure, I did a system scan and quickly checked for any signals outside the usual range. Quite a few showed up actually and suddenly I went ice cold as the signals turned out to be of non-human origin. Luckily I'd spotted a human presence in a neighboring system when I scouted the route here. I quickly threw the ship around and high waked out of there. Arriving safely in Musca Dark Region IM-V C2-24 system my confidence was back, but not for long. Checking my scanners once again, it was FLOODED with alien signals. They where everywhere!

Putting every bit of power into the engine I headed for Hannu Arena, and what a welcome sight it was when I entered the no-fire zone and could start my docking procedure. Time to take a small time-out, talk with some fellow commanders and see if it's worth exploring the Colsack Nebula proper without any combat experience to talk about.

The first few "nebulas" was quite underwhelming. No stars inside the gas cloud itself and nothing interesting to report. I've gotten as close as possible to the following named nebulas:

• The Lupus Dark Regions
• The Lupus Dark Regions B
• Rho Ophiuchi
• The Ophiuchus Dark Regions
• The Ophiuchus Dark Regions B
• The Ophiuchus Dark Regions C
• Snake
• Pipe Stem
• Pipe Bowl

Then I visited Sheron in the IC 4604 Nebula. Something showed up on my scanner and I finally tracked it down so I could get in for a closer look. Quite unexpectedly it turned out to be an abandoned space station, the GCS Sarasvati.

According to the logs I was able to pull, it played a role after the last Thargoid war and was keeping watch over this region of space. First interesting find on this trip and it definitely gave me a positive boost to keep searching the nearby nebulas further. Onwards we go...

There so much to explore, so much to see. How should one decide what course to set?

After 2 previous expeditions which where cut short due to poor planning, this time I wasn't going to fall in to the trap of planning for an "all including - galaxy circumnavigation". Rather I would set myself some short term goals and be open to changes in the itinerary.

I compiled a list of all the know phenomenon that other explores had encountered, figuring I'd cross a few of my list. Not chasing known locations, but rather stumble into them as I went along. By keeping a log of encounters the need to just explore a "bit more" would probably be kept alive as the list of yet to discover elements grew shorter. I'm after all very found of completing collections.

For starters I'm planning to spiral out from the bubble, visiting a lot of the nearby nebulas and logging any new encounters. At first I guess there will be a lot of logbook entries, but when a few of the more common features out there have been checked of the list, my entries will be more sparse. So bear with me.

Here she is, the Far Star, sitting in pristine condition in Soukup City in Latuba. I'm trusting she will also bring me safely back to the bubble at irregular intervals.

This is my first log entry in a long time. I've been parked in an unremarkable system some way out in the black for a few months. I finally reached the conclusion that I needed an upgrade to my explorer setup. I plotted the course back to the bubble and found out it was about 400 jumps in my, not so well equiped, AspX.

Returning to the civilized part of the galaxy again, I turned in exploration data worth a bit more than 400M. With that I set up base in the Sol system and started buying ships. I ended up with 23 ships in my hangar, but only oufitted 2 of them.

My Krait Phantom, named "Event Horizon" became my resource gathering ship, equiped as a jack-of-all-trades. Then I decided on the Orca as my new exploration cruiser.

Got myself an engineered FSD and a Guardian booster, I now have a 55.3 LY jump range in my "Far Star" Orca. I could get the range up even further by skipping a few modules, but I dont want to be 20k light years from the nearest outfitter and suddenly realize I need a laser (or some other module) to open a hidden treasure I stumble over.

So I slapped on 2 small lasers, 2 heatsink launchers, 2 point defence turrets, a large fuel tank, 2 AFMUs, big shield generator and a luxury class cabin for myself. Sacrificing a bit of range on the way. Lastly I have stocket up on materials to synthesis whatever I might need.

Now I'm almost ready to head out again, just need to plot a course.

Currently on my second attempt to reach Colonia.

My first attempt was cut short during a 2g landing following multiple easy 0.1g landings. The shift in g caught me unprepared, resulting in a destroyed ship, multiple millions in lost scan data and a bruised ego.

Going in a wide arch out from the bubble to get some new scan data accumulated and hopefully getting some new "firsts" of valuable systems.