[Journal] Veil Expedition and beyond by CMDR Hoderi

Hoderi · Jul 14, 2015

Hello fellow explorers Commander Hoderi here.
I glad to report I've recently departed civilized space. Been missing the peace and quiet of deep space.

My target: both Veil Nebulae
My ship: Asp "Janus"
Last seen in colonized space: 10th July 3301
Expected arrival at target: unknown (there's to much to see along the way to set a deadline)
Expected return to civilization: unknown

I've started my run with a warmup exploration of Pegasi Sector and made my way towards BD+28 4211

"Janus" just before Adlivun departure:

Red planet close to the sun - Pegasi Sector

Star with planet closeby - Pegasi Sector

Gas giant with ammonia-based life and intriguing white vortexes

Class O massive star and black hole - BD+28 4211

Second black hole - BD+28 4211

That's the end of my first entry. I'll keep it updating as I progress towards my target.

I've posted a full exploration log as well on my blog. Check it out if you're interested in a bit more pics and detailed info.

Commander Hoderi out

Cmdr Raz · Jul 15, 2015

Happy hunting, Commander

Hope to see more pics soon!

Hoderi · Jul 15, 2015

Captains Log - Entry 2

Progress has been slower then I anticipade due to more important issues. Nevertheless I'm steadly making progress towards my desired point of interest.

I've currently reached - HIP 108557 - which is a system 520,49 LY away from Sol. Systems previously undiscovered by other commanders are popping up on a regular basis by now.
No suprise here considering the growing distance from Sol and colonized space.

I've left Pegasi sector behind and currently am passing thru COL 285 Sector discovering even more wonders the galaxy has to offer.

Tripple stars in close proximity - Class L Brown Dwarf and 2 T Tauri Stars
COL 285 Sector

Nice views from the cockpit caught while scanning celestial bodies in the system
COL 285 Sector

Class A white star with "Janus"
HIP 106037

Partial solar eclipse photographed during planet scan.
HIP 107288

Beautiful striped gas giant close to the start
HIP 107331

My last system for the day was HIP 108557. Most interesting of all I've seen so far.
Consisting of a class F star, two ringed class Y brown dwarfs, 3 ringed gas giants and a quite big ammonia world (23,66 earth masses) with carbon-ammonia based life.
My first thought about the ammonia world, when looking at the system map, was that it's just another rocky world not worth the effort.
Glad I didn't skip it as I normally would

HIP 108557 system map with all planets and stars visible

Binary gas giant and class Y brown dwarf.

Ammonia world with some land mass visible thru thick clouds

This was the last stop for the day.

For a full captain log entry visit my blog post.

Godspeed Commanders,
Hoderi out

Cmdr Raz · Jul 16, 2015

Nice pics, that gas giant is quite beautiful

As for the difference between HMC and Ammonia worlds, it can be hard to see, but it can be heard: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=144782

Hoderi · Jul 16, 2015

Yeah I read and know the planet sounds

But as I'm exploring my daughter usually takes hold of the headphones when she's sitting on my laps.
That makes it near impossible to use sounds to distinguish planets

Cmdr Raz · Jul 16, 2015

Hoderi said:
Yeah I read and know the planet sounds
But as I'm exploring my daughter usually takes hold of the headphones when she's sitting on my laps.
That makes it near impossible to use sounds to distinguish planets

Haha, awesome - maybe she can be trained to call out planet types

Hoderi · Jul 17, 2015

Captains Log - Entry 3

Distance to Veil West Nebula - about 600 LY
Distance to Veil East Nebula - about 1000 LY
Distance to Sol - about 1000 LY

I'm really happy because I'm half way to my target. I've managed to pick up some pace and I'm steadily progressing towards Veil West.
It's also clearly visible now in the distance.

2015-07-16-Ringed-C1-Giant-moons-and-Veil-East-nebula.jpg

"Janus" is turning out to be a really reliable and durable ship. We've had a close call this time.
Jumping into the system I've passed thru a star nearly into the next. With heat rising rapidly there was no time for moments. I'm glad I didn't alt+tab or afk

Binary star that nearly cooked my ship and me with it.

2015-07-16-Binary-star-2-Class-K-nearly-killed-me-jumped-thru-one-.jpg

While jumping from system to system I've discovered quite a few interesting things:

A system with 32 astronomical objects

2015-07-15-29-objects-30-with-belts-synuefai-sector.jpg

A system with 5 Tauri stars orbiting a class G star:

Sister planets in very close orbit

2015-07-15-Close-proximity-sister-planets-synuefai-secotor.jpg

And most of all - 5 previously undiscovered water worlds. Sadly no earth like as of yet.
For the sake of minimising the ammount of pictures in one post here's just my selfie with one of the water worlds in the background.

That's it for tonight.
Keep an eye out for more updates. In the mean time you can take a look at my blog for a full log of my discoveries.
The link's in the signature.

Godspeed Commanders
Hoderi out

Hoderi · Jul 20, 2015

Captains log entry 4 - 3301-07-20

Current status:
Days in deep space - 6
Distance to Sol - 1777,05 LY
Distance to Adlivun (starting point) - 1581,71 LY
Distance travelled - around 2500 LY (Note to self: don't get distracted so easily)

Discoveries:
Water worlds - 15
Ammonia worlds - 2
Earthlike worlds - still looking for my first
Black holes - 2
Neutron stars - 1
Water Giants - 1 (decided to keep track as these seem quite rare)

I've finally reached my 1st target - Veil West Nebula!

Sadly there aren't many objects in the nebula itself. But the view makes up for it with ease.I'd love to have such a view in the night's sky

Right now I'm making trails towards Veil East Nebula. Am about 225 LY away from it so it's really close. But I'm taking my time, picking systems at random as long as they are in my general direction.Approching exploration in such a way allowed me to stumble upon my first neutron star. It was already taged by CMDR Turambar - congrats to him/her!

I've yet to discover and earth like planet thou. I've had my fair shair of water worlds already (as noted at the start of the entry).
I even discoverd a water world with 100% ammonia atmosphere. This was rather curious, have you ever encounted such a combination?

As with previous posts, you can view my full captains log entry here.
Many more screens included

Commander Hoderi out!

P.S.
I aways take to many sceens, sorting thru them and finding something usable take ages. Anyone else a "alt+f10" junkie?

iain666 · Jul 20, 2015

I try and check through my screen shots regularly, rename the good ones while I remember what/where they are and ruthlessly bin the rest.

Hoderi · Jul 21, 2015

Ehh that might be a good idea. Cause I tend to get caught up with taking screens of whatever I find interesting and sorting them out "later".
It can lead to an hour or two spent checking what the heck I took screens of and wondering why

Hoderi · Jul 27, 2015

It's been a while since my last update. Unfortunately real life cought up with and so my progress was slower over the last few days.
Buuuuut I've managed to reach my second target - Veil East!

Having reached the nebula I started poking around systems around it as there are no system inside the nebula. I found them to be luckluster, there was not much of interest for me. No spectacular black holes, not cool looking gas giants, not water world and most of all - no earth likes. I still haven't found my first earth like since departing 13 days ago. But that motivates me to drive onward into the unknown!

However I did manage to find a few interesting things between Veil West and Veil East.
I came across two fairly large water worlds (1,4 Earth masses and 2 Earth masses). One of these had a mostly ammonia atmosphere, which I found a bit odd for a water world.

Water world (2 Earth masses) - ammonia atmosphere - Prooe Drye sector

Water world (1,4 Earth masses) - Prooe Drye sector

And here's my most precious find since the start of my expedition.
An ammonia world with rocky ring + moon with ring as well. I haven't seen such configuration yet on my journeys

Ammonia world (20,88 Earth masses) with ring + moon with ring - system map - Prooe Drye sector

Ammonia world - view from space - Prooe Drye sector

2015-07-24-Amonnia-world-with-ring-Prooe-Drye-sector.jpg

Here are the stats so far for expedition.

Days in deep space - 13 (+7 days)
Distance to Sol - 2020,85 LY (+243,80 LY)
Distance to Adlivun (starting point) - 1837,56 LY (+255,85 LY)
Total distance travelled - around 3000 LY (+500 LY)

Discoveries:
Water worlds - 18 (+3)
Ammonia worlds - 3 (+1)
Earthlike worlds - 0
Black holes - 2
Neutron stars - 1
Water Giants - 1

My next target is Sadr Region. I noticed a cool looking giant star that I want to see with my own eyes

Right now Sadr Region is a smear on the horizon, but with each jump I'm getting closer and closer.

As always, you're more then welcome to read the full log entry on my blog.

Godspeed Commanders,
CMDR Hoderi out!

iain666 · Jul 27, 2015

SADR A is a monster, you'll like it. Wait until you see how far away you have to go until it looks about the same size as Sol does from Earth.

Chaz · Jul 28, 2015

I've just been through both the Veil nebula's recently myself. Although we've both obviously traveled in the same direction, just by taking slightly different routes we've found different stuff. I'm willing to bet that the next few hundred people that come this way will also pass through completely different systems in between the nebula's.

I've found 3 Earth like planets so far, one of which was already discovered. One ammonia planet and numerous water worlds. No black holes or neutron stars yet.

Veil west

East

A glowing water world.

An Earth type.

A binary system with 4 stars. (With one of those breath taking, jump in through a star, arrivals.)

A high metal content world in orbit around a star in a system just the other side of the Veil West from Sol. You can still just about make out a hint of the purple light cast by the nebula, even in that close proximity to a star.

Various pictures of other planets etc on the journey.

My current position, although I have since gone a bit further out since that shot was taken. (Not that you'd notice on that galactic scale of course.) The blue ring is centered over the location of my next goal, the Crescent Nebula.

I hope you don't mind my long post, but I thought you might find it interesting since we've both just recently done the same journey as it were.

I look forward to seeing what the SADR region is like in your updates. Good luck, and you're almost bound to find an Earth like sooner or later.

Hoderi · Jul 28, 2015

Chaz said:
I hope you don't mind my long post, but I thought you might find it interesting since we've both just recently done the same journey as it were.

I don't mind at all.
You've taken some very nice pictures and I enjoyed looking thru them. That got me wanting to improve on my Elite photo skills

I'm well on my way towards SADR but I keep getting distracted by ~~shinies~~ interesting stars I want to visit.

iain666 said:
SADR A is a monster, you'll like it. Wait until you see how far away you have to go until it looks about the same size as Sol does from Earth.

Now that really got me interested in SADR!

Pharoh · Jul 28, 2015

Great post and trip Hoderi

I am sure you will find a few EL very soon