Sagittarius A* - 9 explorers

Shocken-Orr

Shocken-Orr
With a plethora of Nae Sayers bemoaning the lack of content in this game, I do applaud someone who grabs on to the roots of the Elite universe both physically and metaphorically. This is what I loved about the original game and I love about this one. It fires the imagination.

What it doesn't do is replace it.
 

CMDR Charybdis

CMDR Charybdis
Day 10: Escaping the sea of rocks
A dangerous activity and a welcome respite. Dizzy stars. Observing a leap of faith.

So the reason why I'm here? Another water world. But an unusual one with its own ring system this time. A close survey for the research scientists back home to determine the composition of the object that once orbited this planet and then broke apart.

One enthusiastic boost too many and the Diamondback leaps clear of the sea of rocks for a moment, framing the water world against the backdrop of a dense curtain of stars.
Click to expand...

day10_sea_of_rocks.jpg

There's a bit of everything to see in this one. Still around 6k Ls from the centre but should probably get there on Sunday.
 
Last edited:

CMDR Charybdis

CMDR Charybdis
Thank you all for reading and enjoying so far :D

Shocken-Orr said:
With a plethora of Nae Sayers bemoaning the lack of content in this game, I do applaud someone who grabs on to the roots of the Elite universe both physically and metaphorically. This is what I loved about the original game and I love about this one. It fires the imagination.

What it doesn't do is replace it.
Click to expand...
I'd have to agree with this - there is too much expectation that a story is spoon fed to you. There's always a compromise in a linear story (all films, and many high quality titles that include you in their story), and an open sandbox where you can play with your own active imagination.

Ziggy Stardust said:
Exploring in the first wasn't really that exiting :)

Sun, check
Planet, check
Station, check
Next!
Click to expand...
Though I must admit that I did spend quite a lot of time in Beta with a 500Ls range scanner and try to eyeball the relative motion and position of objects that I knew should be there. An infinite range scanner does take a bit out of that, but if I were doing it the old way then I'd still be about 1000Ly from the home system :rolleyes:
 

CMDR Charybdis

CMDR Charybdis
Day 11: The double scoop
Collective madness. More rings. The next destination.

I've had an opportunity to take a detour, finding myself less than 1000Ly from the Great Annihilator is too much to pass up.

There's also a video of a piece of madness that I just had to get out of my system :)
 
Last edited:

CMDR Charybdis

CMDR Charybdis
We've made it :)

Cmdr Stoneage (Asp) and I managed to arrive within a few minutes of each other as the advanced party. One commander had already arrived, but time zone differences have made the meet up very difficult.

day12_arrived_stoneage_zpssqopg4nz.jpg

Blogs and videos to follow.
 

CMDR Charybdis

CMDR Charybdis
I'm still catching up on the blog entries as I'd like the blog to be in chronological sequence.

Day 12: Eaten by the Great Annihilator
Taking the low road. Regurgitated stars. Eaten alive.

Nothing happens.

The computer bleeps helplessly as the jump fails to engage and the engines start to flood the ship with heat. The emergency jump sequence shuts down and mercifully the heat begins to dissipate safely. My trigger finger moves away from the heatsink launch button, the charge remains available and unused, while the temperature drains back to sensible levels.

Am I trapped?
Click to expand...

There's a video to go with this entry as well. Its a placeholder "intro" as the full HQ video will take a while to upload. I'll update when that's done.

[video=youtube;i8H-AWO4OyY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8H-AWO4OyY&index=3&list=PLftKRkUbCdKgiMCVnUCkByO-o6jnus6q9[/video]
 
Last edited:

CMDR Charybdis

CMDR Charybdis
One teaser from the meet up photoshoot. This is proving harder to organise than the trip out :)

I wonder how much the Lakon Exploration marketing department would pay for these...

 

CMDR Charybdis

CMDR Charybdis
Day 12: Slàinte mhath!
The space ahead looks... dimpled... and a halo of light surrounds my destination. The gravitational distortion of light behind the black star that is lucky enough to get around and not fall in.

The jump drive spools up and the throttle slides forward as it has done so many times before. There's no time to counter the dry throat that just formed.

The ship slides into witch space one more time.
Click to expand...

Phew!

Well you probably guessed that we'd arrived over the weekend, but what with work and video trouble I've only now had a chance to write up the arrival. The intensity of writing up a blog entry for each day's travel has been both fulfilling and draining. Thank you all for the encouragement and kind words along the way, very much appreciated and has kept me going. Now to go sign that new Sagittarius A* visitor book..

Also, here's an HD video for the visit to The Great Annihilator. Lots of gratuitous fly bys of the black hole and a mini-story about trying to escape from within close range of the black hole. The inspiration for the penultimate entry on day eleven (Eaten by the Great Annihilator).

This had to be uploaded twice due to a rendering error and was the cause of the delay on the blog entry :rolleyes:

[video=youtube;rwbqRVMi1R8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwbqRVMi1R8&index=4&list=PLftKRkUbCdKgiMCVnUCkByO-o6jnus6q9[/video]

Back to more casual blogging in future, but I'm staying out here for a while to do some exploring so I'll update with some posts as I make finds. I'll also put some of the choice photos up in the first post so there's a more complete record.

Enjoy and thank you all!
 
Last edited:

CMDR Charybdis

CMDR Charybdis
The Three Graces
Charm, beauty, and creativity. An S-type. A growing realisation.

A somewhat rare 3 terraformable waterworlds around a neutron star.

Judged to be the remnants of a super nova, a neutron star is dense, hot and spinning. The sheer number of them in this volume of space calls into question what stellar event took place here. One that left behind so many?

The calmness of space of the moment actually conceals the vicious damage once wrought here. A massive star near the end of its main sequence, and in the final stages of collapse, will shrink further under its nuclear processes. Beyond a certain point the outer shell is blown away while a core of neutrons remains. A super nova is the death of a star.

Known to explorers as "The Neutron Fields", it is more like a battle field graveyard of giant fallen stars.
Click to expand...

Well the exploration continued after reaching Sagittarius A* and after a fellow explorer suggested visiting the a GRS black hole nearby as well as the neutron fields, I couldn't resist. Why travel all this way and not get some sightseeing in?
 

CMDR Charybdis

CMDR Charybdis
Another update on the journey back:

Roll up, Roll up!
The tourist trap. The murky event horizon. No tip for the guide.

The black hole isn't a large one as they go, I've already visited larger, and the orbit around the body is one that even the onboard computer can calculate. Leaving the computer to continue the orbit, my full attention turns to the sensors to ensure they remain pointed where they should.

One star races across the field of view, up to the edge of the hole, then takes an abrupt right angle turn and traces a path around the event horizon, before continuing on its way. If I can get the spectral profile of that star then the event horizon might be mapped with greater theoretical understanding.

My distraction is my undoing. The klaxons go off and, deep in concentration chasing the star, the blaring sound is a distance call on my attention. Only a moment mind, but that could be enough to be fatal, while the ship grinds and threatens to shake itself apart in protest. In relief it drops out into sub-light space with a vicious rattle.
Click to expand...

Less than 1000Ly to go now.
 
Last edited:

CMDR Charybdis

CMDR Charybdis
The visit to the Eagle's Nebula on the way back.

The Pillars of Creation
There's no Earth like home. Eagle Nebula, birthplace of stars.

Just as worlds are a birthplace for life, so the stars themselves must also have their own stellar nursery. That life births into existence, struggles and fights to survive, grows old, and then dies is a familiar thing. Harder to imagine for stars where the scale is over billions of years; our lives are ephemeral by comparison. Mankind didn't even exist as a species when these stars entered the galaxy.
Click to expand...
 

CMDR Charybdis

CMDR Charybdis
Thanks Kancro - already done :)

Another two updates:
The littlest nebula
Almost impossible to spot on the galaxy map, unless you are very lucky! Planetary nebula usually contain Wolf-Rayet stars at their core.

The escort home
Meeting up. Dry roast python. 1-1-2 all the way.

Find a binary star system where the two stars are close together. Very close together. Tweak your heat management to start as low as possible, line up for the gap in between and then try to push through. The fuel scoop will engage but that's the least of your worries. The heat rises and rises while you slow down in the gravity well of both stars, making it feel like wading through molasses.

The only sweet thing is when you get out the other side both intact and without damage. You feel like you want to get out and push the ship to safety: to a point where radiative heat works in your favour to take away the heat instead of heavily piling on more.

It always helps to have something to aim for. Trying to kill your friends isn't one of them though.
Click to expand...

I've been most fortunate to have some friends who are want to take time out and conduct an escort mission/operation to bring the data back into the bubble.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom