A short round trip today out from the Smilers Observatory and back.

I initially headed to an Ae/Be system about 100Ly out which turned out to be pretty uninteresting except for being a inary of that type.

I then headed back more slowly, had a run in with a close binary and ran in to some more interesting places. First a multi star system with an Earth like world orbiting one of the barycenters (Hypo Chreou SC-M d7-23 ABC 2). Another system held examples of water and ammonia based gas giant life along with a rather fetching ringed Water World (Hypo Chreou TX-L d7-217 7).

No neutron cone boosted jump experimentation but perhaps another day.

Hopefully more of an opportunity to explore tomorrow before we begin jumping for the deployment zone.

The Smilers Observatory has safely made it to the Izanami Region!

After the longer journey there wsn't much time for exploration though we did tag a few local planets and systems along the way.

We will soon be on to the final stretch and should fairly soon arrive at the DSSA deployment zone. We'll scout out a permanent location once in the area, though we have a couple of likely candidates in mind.

At our current stop, Hypo Chreou NZ-O b33-7, I found a local neutron star and experimented with another jet cone boosted jump. Bit less cautious this time and overshot the cone. Still, I guess this comes with practice. Happy to have the SO at the other end to patch up the damage done to the drive!

Tonights exploration was again limited though I did come across a Water Giant (Eol Bloae GW-V e2-6066 5) which is a little unusual, this orbiting a Herbig Ae/Be star along with 7 T-Tauris.

Of note I also made an experimental neutron star boosted jump back to the carrier system having travelling out a little way, a jump slightly in excess of 90Ly. Certainly not winning any awards for that and a common occurance for travels of the highway but a novelty for me. Entered the neutron star cone heading away from the star and at a very shallow angle. This very much minimised the bouncing I experienced and allowed the FSD to super charge realtively painlessly. I fixed up the FSD from the damage it took once back at the carrier though I carry an AMFU in case. Given my caution in using this form of boosting I'm not clear it would be any more efficient than simply jumping more times, but we'll see. If I have occasion to try this more often perhaps I'll get used to it and find a quicker and safer pattern.

Neutron start providing the boost in this first jump was Eol Bloae OD-Q d6-177 A.

So, having arrived at our most recent spot, I've had less time than expected to explore local space.

Smiler did find a very pictuesque moon of a gas giant with large rings yesterday and we set down for drinks and a photo call (Eol Bloae GW-V e2-7721 5 a, geo 6).

This evening I unexpectedly came across and Earth Like while scouting an unexplored Neutron star (Eol Bloae QY-P d6-2631 B 3). This was orbiting the binary pair of the Neutron Star, a more normal class K.

Hopefully more time to search local space tomorrow, there is a rather tantalising nebula nearby that needs exploring.

So, as the title says, half way to the Izanami Region aboard the Smilers Obsevatory. We are currently located in Eol Bloae QY-P d6-237, apparently, but I've not gotten up to the bridge to take a look yet.

Soon though, then I'll take the Destiny's Edge 2 out for a scouting trip of local systems.

I did this at our last stop, tagging most systems within about 10Ly or so of the carrier. Nothing too interesting to note, though the triple Water World system I found shortly before we shipped out was a nice find.

I'm curious what this new patch of the void will yield and what we'll find at our destination.

I've talked to various commanders down the years about some of the alternative tech available to support their exploits but up until now I've stuck with the standard tools provided by the Pilots Federation through our ships.

Of late, however, I've been finding extra tools increasingly necessary and useful and so have decided to go a step further with the introduction of EDSM and related systems.

This will allow me to log my travels more effectively and allow me to move away from the frankly antiquated paper and pencil approach of yesteryear.

I look forward to this chance to make a new start.

My current plans are following Commander Smiler99 out on his DSSA assignement on board the Smilers Observatory. An exciting opportunity to get in to properly unexplored space and nose around.