Where was I going again?

DeRane · Nov 25, 2016

Decided to go exploring. Done. Decided to go galactic "north". Don.... oooh shiny! Spotted nice O star some 2 kLys West and headed there. Noticed the triplet of B stars about 500 Ly away, went to have a look. Oh, nice looking pair of nebulae (I think it is spelled like that?). Now heading to that direction.

Decided to write about it on forums... In progress.

This will be a photo journal of sorts. Interesting sights I see when I stumble across some part of the galaxy without any plans or destinations. I might crash and burn today, or I might return to bubble tomorrow. Neither is really probable, but you never know. Text will be badly written engrish and pictures contain a lot of T6, so if either offends you, turn off the monitor now.

Few pics.

The Stars Above HD 15570, massive O class star. Very cool location.

After HD 15570, headed to the "triplets", BD+60 551, BD+61 464 and BD+61 459. Trio of B-class stars all within 10 Ly range.

Here is magnificent view of far orbiting companion of BD+61 459. On background both O-star clusters of NGC 7822 Nebula

More when I get there.

Macedonica · Nov 25, 2016

Beautiful pics - and it always good to see the T6 out in the depths. Look forward to more!

Unuk Elhai · Nov 25, 2016

Can't wait to read your logbook filled with nice pics, always a pleasure to read those threads

DeRane · Nov 25, 2016

Macedonica said:
Beautiful pics - and it always good to see the T6 out in the depths. Look forward to more!

T6 seems bit under represented in the exploration expeditions. I seriously can't figure why, since it has room, jump range and landing ability to go with the best of them.

Unuk Elhai said:
Can't wait to read your logbook filled with nice pics, always a pleasure to read those threads

Thanks. I try to keep up with updates, so.... Where was I? Oh yes, in Hegeia Sector!

Once I got here in no time at all, my advance has slowed to crawl. The reason, the blame, the culprit? FDev of course! By giving me this cool tool to plot course based on star class, they made me test it and I found out that I can navigate in Hegeia with these setting alone;

Only the brightest and largest stars Oh, Be, A.... And weird ones of course, as one has to stay true to ones nature. This means that most of my route is full of Class A stars.

Full of high metal content worlds;

Water Worlds with rings (Candidate for terraforming, naturally)

And rarely even these!

Hah, got you. You were expecting this;

Both were in Hegeia MO-I D9-51 and the Ice Body was also the first one I saw since I started moving along A-route. I will post a picture of Rocky Body too... as soon as I find one orbiting Class A star. I really think A stars are most satisfying systems to explore, at least for me. Those M stars really get you down with two orbits full of rocks followed by endless line of snowballs. Nothing in A systems seem as "waste of time".... Which is the reason I am wasting so much time in Hageia sector, as every where I go there is something to scan.

Perhaps I need to set route on M stars only? Would get so frustrated with the systems I would just run to the Nebuale with max speed? Although the low temp, low mass fuel from M-class star can't be good for my finely tuned FSD.

Macedonica · Nov 25, 2016

Ah can't rep you for these pics but chew on some salty +V rep!

You are right about the T6 but have you seen these threads:

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/116861-Type-6-To-boldly-go

and

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/225153-Distant-Worlds-A-Rather-Uncommon-Flotilla

We may fly unheralded but we fly with pride!

DeRane · Nov 26, 2016

Hegeia sector finally changed to Hegua sector. The star system composition is just as similar as the names, so I keep moving along the A-route. If anything, the density of big, higher end main sequence stars is increasing as I get closer to Heart and Soul.

If I get closer that is. I can see the target, but I keep getting distracted by all kinds of things, like these ringed HMCs

There they are, Heart and Soul and that luring cluster 'under' the Heart nebula.

But it will wait as I saw this Water World.

Really didn't think it would be a WW or terraformable, but it was! Surface temp on the cool side, -20 C°, gravity little bellow 1, but atmosphere was almost perfect 74-52 N-O2. All this 3600 Ls from the star! Orbital period was insane 4700 d! New Year would only come along once every 13 or so years on that planet. Then again so would Black Friday shopping, so some positive sides too.

Another extreme few systems later.

Shiny black little rock orbiting a hot A star just 300 Ls out. 11 000 km radius makes it twice the Earth and mass is about 11 times. Surface gravity 3.29 G, good for those wanting to exercise while they sit, walk or sleep. Atmospheric pressure is bit on high side, with 1966 Atm and is almost all CO2, meaning it is high time to move to greener tech, but at least you will not need winter clothing with M-class star dwarfing 2694 K surface temp.

More pics, when I get there.

DeRane · Nov 26, 2016

Something shiny caught my eye again when I was checking my route and diverted me 200 Ly from my course.

A Neutron. On galaxy map I saw another just 50 Ly away and of course I needed to verify it on my own eyes.

But did I check the course as I routed to the destination star (a B class with B companion) 400 Ly away? Of course not and this game has a sense of humor.

3 jumps and I had scanned few A-systems, jumping next one when the text catches my eye; "Star Class: N". What did it say? "4.... 3.... 2...." Wait what?

Good thing I didn't have a coffee on my hand.

Nothing happened, but needless to say I have been doing double checks on my route since.

Also the game seemed to have seen my last post as I ended up on the Class B star system with actual planetary system around it. Purely placed there to mock me.
"Tell me more about those extreme planets you found orbiting that puny Class A Stars."

Here is Class B version of Furnace World;

If the one around A star rivals M class star's temperature, this one has surface straight out of the Sun with 4342 K. Pressure is nice 37245.89 Atm (not sure that .89 makes any difference any more) and gravity a pleasant 3.22 G. I doubt the atmospheric flight model would allow us to land on that, but if it does I will call dibs!

Other end of the system had.... That's right, a Water World.

Perfectly blue and huge... Just HUGE. Radius was 2.5x of Earth and mass 11 times. Surface temp was actually same as the water world around A, but this one was 8000 Ls away! Another 5000 K on star's surface temp makes a huge difference. Non-candidate for terraforming though. Not with 3.55 G surface gravity.

Few system later found my first Ammonia world.

Finished scanning and almost turned away, when I noticed that it didn't say "High Metal Content". Looked nice.

Soon out of Hegua Sector.

More pics, when I get there.

DeRane · Nov 26, 2016

Well, got bored again and started looking around for something interesting. And there is always something interesting out there, if you look hard enough.

The 2Mass JO[phone number]+[phone number] cluster. Who ever got to name those 2Mass clusters didn't think much of us mortals. Design by IT, for IT.

Anyway, as I got closer the cluster just kept getting brighter and brighter. Close enough and I could see them while fueling.

With huge number of O-stars out there, Big-Star fan club member like me was overjoyed. O-Stars are the kings of the hill, as far I as I am concerned. Neutrons and Red Giants are just has-beens unlike these monsters, which are in the prime of their life. Of course if you do see O-star at the end of its life, it is time to test just how fast you can jump 1000 Ly. They go super nova and they die young. Meaning I was diving towards largest Nuclear arsenal in galaxy, one that might go off at any moment. And take half the sector with it.

But risk is well worth it, since they are great looking stars.

Of course Kings have to have worthy court.

Don't see it? Would it help to point out that most of those bright stars are in fact in the same system.

Really fun place, I think I keep scanning giants for a while.

More pictures, when I get there.

DeRane · Nov 28, 2016

After having my fill with O-stars, few Black Holes and numerous B0 class stars, I decided to push for the Heart nebula at top speed. No more side tracks, otherwise this is going to take forever.

So, towards the heart of the matter (puns, even accidentals, always intended).

Closer....

Oooh, what's that?

An ELW! Great find. Now I towards the Heart nebula without distractions.

Closer....

Hey! That looks like...

Ammonia World. Lucky! Where was I? Oh yeah!

Closer.....

This exploration thingy is going to take awhile....

This is actually inside The Heart Nebula, so I made it this far.

Also found a Black hole in here too at Heart Sector ZE-A e11 system, but not HD 15558... :S (Super massive that in reality lies in the Heart). Perhaps the O-star I found earlier was it (but.... it had 2Mass as name? Or I am being told it is actually 2MASS as in 2 - Micron All Sky Survey).

So what to do next. Scanning the space around Heart reveals relative little for a tourist like myself. Over the Rift to outer arm? Visit the Soul nebula as well? Go.... Hmm. 4 O-stars in one system at heart of nebula? BD+55 191. I am so there, 2000 Ly that away, engage!

More pics when I get there.

DeRane · Dec 1, 2016

So the trip to NGC 281 Nebula and it's shining center, the BD+55 191 system was pretty uneventful. I had to abandon the A-road of massive stars and add F-G-K group to the mix, which naturally meant that my route was made almost exclusively of F-G-K stars (far more numerous than A+ stars).

Composition of planetary system changed too, even around few A's I encountered, resulting systems with lot of planets inside the habitable zone, but few if any in it (no terraformables

) or outside of it. Even Gas Giants were against me with complete lack of white class II's. I started calling area between Heart and NGC 281 nebulae "The Desert" with no real valuable targets. Especially compared to Hegua/Hegeia sectors, where you couldn't fly 2 Ly without stumbling onto 3-4 un-tagged terraformables and water worlds. The abundant of riches might have ruined these systems to me.

Another noteworthy thing was huge number of previous explorers that had tagged systems and planets. Really can't figure out why? The route between Heart and NGC 281 is diagonal across the galactic plane, with no major routes/destinations to any direction. So why are there systems out here, 1000 Ly from anywhere, with tags from not one, but two or three explorers? Don't tell me someone presented a theory about Thargoids in this area?

Oh well. As I headed forward I was also in search of mythical substance, often found in the whispered tales of the old explorers. To this end I had ventured into forbidden libraries in search of black codex, climbed highest mountains to learn the secrets of mystics, ventured into deepest catacombs to read the legendary manuscripts. I even tried the song. But still, no Polonium.

I did find system defense vessel ignoring the occupied escape pods.

And almost took a pic from double sunset.

It was supposed to be a pic of double sunrise, but after driving 10 minutes after that 'good image from the next hill top', I finally realized that it would be single star now, or no stars at all as I was actually driving to sunset and losing the race. You got to imagine the second K-class now just bellow the horizon.

Poor Thermopylae's paint-job is starting to feel the Ly's. Actually I like the effect, but perhaps it is bit too fast? It would be cooler if you could tell the real Monsters of the Black from us sunday explorers from wear on the paint.

More pics when I get there.

CMDR Space Lurker · Dec 1, 2016

Is that 15 functioning stars, 5 brown dwarfs and 3 black holes?... that's amazing. You should make this system the Capital of your New Empire.

DeRane · Dec 1, 2016

CMDR Space Lurker said:
Is that 15 functioning stars, 5 brown dwarfs and 3 black holes?... that's amazing. You should make this system the Capital of your New Empire.

Yes, quite a full system. Radio clock would just start your morning with "Good morning, it is 7 am on the hour on 4th of March 3203. Sun rises at 7.23, 8.56, 9.15. 10.45, sets 11.05, rises 11.13....", so little too bright and busy for my tastes, as I am more of a 'Fortress of Solitude' than 'New Empire' kind of guy.

Which means that BD+55 191 is now my favourite system so far.

On approach the NGC 281 Nebula was nothing like brightening Heart was.

Being made of dust and particles that didn't reflect or radiated visible light, it was more of a black cloth on sky than bright nebula. Only the BD+55 is visible through it and for good reason too.

Four massive O-stars and a single planet. Of course I have always known that O-stars are some of the most massive stars there are on the sky (outside some rare hypergiants and such), but there is a difference in knowing and knowing. After this I knew.

[woah]

The planet was nothing special, expect that it circled two of the giants bellow black sky with no other stars in a dark nebula. It looked like it was engulfed into permanent fog. Very photogenic place.

And I found Polonium! All and all BD+55 191 is a place worth visiting. The sights are some of the nicest so far. But where to head next to top that? The sky seems kind of empty of any special features and even looking for giant stars doesn't seem to yield results. I pick a direction of Cocoon nebula, with lingering idea of making Eta Carinae the next major destination. One of the 'must see' places for a astronomy idiot like myself. But that is a long term goal, since Eta is another side of bubble.... So I see what I see on the way there.

More pics, when I get there.