But you'll be there in ten days at this rate! 
Going to Colonia
- Thread starter Alec Turner
- Start date
Not many distractions in the first few kly but I'm sure things will slow down later. Which reminds me, has anyone got any good advice on how to look for Stellar Phenomena on a trip like this? There's the Codex of course but it's kinda useless as it only lists three examples for each. There's also a great list over here ..But you'll be there in ten days at this rate!
notable-phenomena-repository-please-add-yours
.. which I might try to use but I'm unclear how I work out which of the sites listed are along my general route.
I've been looking for my own stellar phenomena. I think I've only found one that was new, though, in the thousands of systems I've been to. And probably just two in total! They really are quite rare. One thing that I wondered - do they only appear in nebulae?
A lot of types of them do require nebulae, but not all.
This is what I used for Signs of Life Alec, put in a system on your route and pick up to 10 codex entries to look for. Might have to do a few searches to cover all of the Stellar Phenomena you want to look for. https://www.edsm.net/en/search/systems
Edit: Oh, and bump the search radius up a bit.
Edit: Oh, and bump the search radius up a bit.
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Oh that's brilliant - thanks!
Day 2 - 19.12.3306
Just a short one today. I had planned to attempt a climb of one of the tall central towers at Hillary Depot because the view from the top would have been sensational. Unfortunately it was pitch black so in the end I just had time for a quick urban parkour assault course before I had to stop and make some phone calls back to Earth where news of a new series of outbreak lockdown measures had reached me via the sub-ether.
Day 3 - 20.12.3306
It's still dark at Hillary Depot so I abandon plans for a tower climb and head off in the direction of Attenborough's Watch in the Lagoon Sector. It's my intention to skip a few of my bookmarked locations on the way out to Colonia so I can catch them on the return trip. I've set my EDSM advanced system search to watch out for various notable stellar phenomena so along the way I encounter these crystals.
Take note of the positioning of that christmas tree on the dashboard as that turns out to be my first big outfitting mistake.
A second set of crystals ..
.. provides a nice opportunity to take the SLF for a quick spin.
A few systems later I find a nice waterworld in a tandem orbit with a lovely looking metal rich body which has some surface geologicals and I decide to go and investigate. It's only as I'm in my final glide to the surface that I realise that damned christmas tree is completely blocking my view of the planet's gravity readout! I'll have to fix that at some point. In the meantime my instincts alert me to the fact that this place has a 1.5g and I manage to avoid a premature end to my adventure and set down safely next to some surface volcanism.
Then it's back into long distance travel mode as I have a good way to go. I've observed this bright cluster of stars getting noticeable closer. I may have to investigate later.
An 'A' class star breaks up the monotomy a little while later, I might consider filtering part of my journey for just these brighter variants at some point.
About 25 jumps later and quite close to my destination now I find a system containing these strange mineral spheres within their own tiny nebula and stop for another photo opportunity.
Time to get the fighter out again I think!
I'm now only 100ly away from Attenborough's Watch so two more jumps sees me arrive at this spectacular asteroid base nestled between the inner rings of planet A 5 and the gas giant itself.
Requesting permission to dock!
Made it!
I'm now 4,500 lights years from Sol and wouldn't you believe it ... this place doesn't have anywhere capable of swapping a couple of bobbleheads around!
Jeez, next time I must remember to bring my own screwdriver.
Just a short one today. I had planned to attempt a climb of one of the tall central towers at Hillary Depot because the view from the top would have been sensational. Unfortunately it was pitch black so in the end I just had time for a quick urban parkour assault course before I had to stop and make some phone calls back to Earth where news of a new series of outbreak lockdown measures had reached me via the sub-ether.
Day 3 - 20.12.3306
It's still dark at Hillary Depot so I abandon plans for a tower climb and head off in the direction of Attenborough's Watch in the Lagoon Sector. It's my intention to skip a few of my bookmarked locations on the way out to Colonia so I can catch them on the return trip. I've set my EDSM advanced system search to watch out for various notable stellar phenomena so along the way I encounter these crystals.
Take note of the positioning of that christmas tree on the dashboard as that turns out to be my first big outfitting mistake.
A second set of crystals ..
.. provides a nice opportunity to take the SLF for a quick spin.
A few systems later I find a nice waterworld in a tandem orbit with a lovely looking metal rich body which has some surface geologicals and I decide to go and investigate. It's only as I'm in my final glide to the surface that I realise that damned christmas tree is completely blocking my view of the planet's gravity readout! I'll have to fix that at some point. In the meantime my instincts alert me to the fact that this place has a 1.5g and I manage to avoid a premature end to my adventure and set down safely next to some surface volcanism.
Then it's back into long distance travel mode as I have a good way to go. I've observed this bright cluster of stars getting noticeable closer. I may have to investigate later.
An 'A' class star breaks up the monotomy a little while later, I might consider filtering part of my journey for just these brighter variants at some point.
About 25 jumps later and quite close to my destination now I find a system containing these strange mineral spheres within their own tiny nebula and stop for another photo opportunity.
Time to get the fighter out again I think!
I'm now only 100ly away from Attenborough's Watch so two more jumps sees me arrive at this spectacular asteroid base nestled between the inner rings of planet A 5 and the gas giant itself.
Requesting permission to dock!
Made it!
I'm now 4,500 lights years from Sol and wouldn't you believe it ... this place doesn't have anywhere capable of swapping a couple of bobbleheads around!
Jeez, next time I must remember to bring my own screwdriver.
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Day 4 - 21.12.3306
MOUNTAIN CLIMB AND MATING EXPERIMENTS
I do a quick scan of the system around Attenborough's Watch and spot a planet worthy of closer inspection. Turns out to be low gravity (no thanks to the christmas tree!) and there's a mountain just begging to be climbed.
Nice views from the top!
I decide to recall the ship thinking it might land at the base of the mountain and give me a destination to head to but the darn thing decides to come and hover right next to me instead.
Oh well, there's only thing to do in that situation ... although I didn't entirely expect what happened next.
Once safely down again I decide it's time to head for Observation Post Epsilon in the Trifid Sector (I was gonna check out Musica Universalis but it turns out to be about 3.5kly SW of me so I'll save that for the journey back perhaps).
Farewell mountain, we had some fun didn't we!
Once in the Trifid Sector, rather than heading straight for the observation post I decide to use EDSM to look for more interesting phenomena in the surrounding area and find these fascinating Collared Pods which seem to exist hidden within deep black inky clouds perhaps of their own making?
Note the complete absence of any background star light, it's really quite eery in here!
In that last photograph I spot a second pod lurking in the background and start to wonder what might happen if I can persuade these two lonely souls to get together.
Much gentle pushing and shoving later ...
They seem entirely disinterested in each other.
Note to self: next time bring candles and chocolates.
In a second area elsewhere in the same system I actually find a whole shoal of these pods (is "shoal" the right word) floating in amongst a field of crystals and mineral spheres.
I'm loving these little fella's and decide to try a second system which rewards me with the site of some pods in an asteroid ring which exhibit signs of bioluminescence.
Spectacular! I'm gonna park here for the night so I can study these some more tomorrow.
MOUNTAIN CLIMB AND MATING EXPERIMENTS
I do a quick scan of the system around Attenborough's Watch and spot a planet worthy of closer inspection. Turns out to be low gravity (no thanks to the christmas tree!) and there's a mountain just begging to be climbed.
Nice views from the top!
I decide to recall the ship thinking it might land at the base of the mountain and give me a destination to head to but the darn thing decides to come and hover right next to me instead.
Oh well, there's only thing to do in that situation ... although I didn't entirely expect what happened next.
Once safely down again I decide it's time to head for Observation Post Epsilon in the Trifid Sector (I was gonna check out Musica Universalis but it turns out to be about 3.5kly SW of me so I'll save that for the journey back perhaps).
Farewell mountain, we had some fun didn't we!
Once in the Trifid Sector, rather than heading straight for the observation post I decide to use EDSM to look for more interesting phenomena in the surrounding area and find these fascinating Collared Pods which seem to exist hidden within deep black inky clouds perhaps of their own making?
Note the complete absence of any background star light, it's really quite eery in here!
In that last photograph I spot a second pod lurking in the background and start to wonder what might happen if I can persuade these two lonely souls to get together.
Much gentle pushing and shoving later ...
They seem entirely disinterested in each other.
Note to self: next time bring candles and chocolates.
In a second area elsewhere in the same system I actually find a whole shoal of these pods (is "shoal" the right word) floating in amongst a field of crystals and mineral spheres.
I'm loving these little fella's and decide to try a second system which rewards me with the site of some pods in an asteroid ring which exhibit signs of bioluminescence.
Spectacular! I'm gonna park here for the night so I can study these some more tomorrow.
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Incidentally, here's a quick rundown on how I'm using EDSM to find interesting Stellar Phenomena (so others can either learn from this or tell me I'm doing it completely wrong).
So I start here: https://www.edsm.net/en/search/systems
I make sure that Show All Systems is selected in the top-right, I enter the system I'm heading for next in the Commander position box (because I prefer to find something to go and see near my next destination rather than near where I currently am, basically knocking another chunk off the journey first, and then sightseeing), I move the maximum radius slider to something like 500ly and then I use the Codex entry drop-down to select a whole bunch of things I'm interested in seeing (you're limited to picking about 8). Then I hit search. If I get zero matches then I either expand the search radius or else try a different selection of Codex entries. If I get hundreds of matches then I reduce the search radius until I get a dozen or so. I then pick a system that's somewhere along my route and off we go. Once there you'll usually see Stellar Phenomena listed in your navigation panel after you've honked the system. Head to the signal source and go see what there is to find. If you want to see something else what you can then do is un-select the thing you've found from the Codex list and try again. With luck there'll be another system nearby containing something else from the remaining list. Oh, and note that lifeforms like the pods are tiny and hang around somewhere deep in the heart of the local phenomena. You'll need to fly towards the center for a while before you start to see flickering unresolved signals on the radar. Follow these traces and eventually you'll find the lifeforms.
So I start here: https://www.edsm.net/en/search/systems
I make sure that Show All Systems is selected in the top-right, I enter the system I'm heading for next in the Commander position box (because I prefer to find something to go and see near my next destination rather than near where I currently am, basically knocking another chunk off the journey first, and then sightseeing), I move the maximum radius slider to something like 500ly and then I use the Codex entry drop-down to select a whole bunch of things I'm interested in seeing (you're limited to picking about 8). Then I hit search. If I get zero matches then I either expand the search radius or else try a different selection of Codex entries. If I get hundreds of matches then I reduce the search radius until I get a dozen or so. I then pick a system that's somewhere along my route and off we go. Once there you'll usually see Stellar Phenomena listed in your navigation panel after you've honked the system. Head to the signal source and go see what there is to find. If you want to see something else what you can then do is un-select the thing you've found from the Codex list and try again. With luck there'll be another system nearby containing something else from the remaining list. Oh, and note that lifeforms like the pods are tiny and hang around somewhere deep in the heart of the local phenomena. You'll need to fly towards the center for a while before you start to see flickering unresolved signals on the radar. Follow these traces and eventually you'll find the lifeforms.
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Day 5 - 22.12.3306
UNWELCOME TRUTHS AND B CLASS STARS
The day begins back with my Collared Pod friends.
Time to get moving again tho'. My first order of business today is to see if I can find a fleet carrier so I can swap these dashboard bobbleheads around a bit.
n.b. I gather it's actually possible to access Livery from the main menu ... but where's the fun in that eh!
I use EDSM's advanced station search and find a likely candidate just 200lys away. Alas when I arrive in the system there's no fleet carrier to be found.
This cluster of intriguing stars I noticed earlier is still getting closer however.
Abandoning EDSM (which is presumably out of date) I switch to filtering the galaxy map (which I'd forgotten has a fleet carrier presence option) and begin a slow painstaking sweep of the surrounding area. Just as I'm about to give up I spot a single lone system being highlighted and I'm on my way again. I'm somewhat surprised on entering the system to be told it's Independent and has a population of some 2,500 people ... surely they can't all be on the carrier? A quick check reveals the truth - I've accidentally arrived at Omega Sector VE-Q b5-15, home of the Omega Mining Operation! Oh well, first stop is the fleet carrier Unwelcome Truths ..
.. and praise the lord, a Livery.
Also nice to see the Buckyball Racing Club's advertising campaign (which cost me a small fortune) has made it's way all the way out here!
I head down to the nearest planet to test the new dashboard arrangement and hallelujah, I can read the gravity!
I can also see that star cluster again ... right, time to plot a course and get to the bottom of this mystery.
Well, it turns out what they are is a cluster of hundreds of 'B' class stars (the cluster probably has a name, perhaps someone more knowledgeable reading this can tell me more?).
I jump to another one and wouldn't you believe it ...
.. another fleet carrier. Nothing for 5000 light years and then two come along at once! Alas this one doesn't allow docking permission so all I can do is grab a quick selfie.
This is Cmdr Turner of the Outworn Dalliances, somewhere in the 2MASS / PW2010 cluster, signing off.
UNWELCOME TRUTHS AND B CLASS STARS
The day begins back with my Collared Pod friends.
Time to get moving again tho'. My first order of business today is to see if I can find a fleet carrier so I can swap these dashboard bobbleheads around a bit.
n.b. I gather it's actually possible to access Livery from the main menu ... but where's the fun in that eh!
I use EDSM's advanced station search and find a likely candidate just 200lys away. Alas when I arrive in the system there's no fleet carrier to be found.
This cluster of intriguing stars I noticed earlier is still getting closer however.
Abandoning EDSM (which is presumably out of date) I switch to filtering the galaxy map (which I'd forgotten has a fleet carrier presence option) and begin a slow painstaking sweep of the surrounding area. Just as I'm about to give up I spot a single lone system being highlighted and I'm on my way again. I'm somewhat surprised on entering the system to be told it's Independent and has a population of some 2,500 people ... surely they can't all be on the carrier? A quick check reveals the truth - I've accidentally arrived at Omega Sector VE-Q b5-15, home of the Omega Mining Operation! Oh well, first stop is the fleet carrier Unwelcome Truths ..
.. and praise the lord, a Livery.
Also nice to see the Buckyball Racing Club's advertising campaign (which cost me a small fortune) has made it's way all the way out here!
I head down to the nearest planet to test the new dashboard arrangement and hallelujah, I can read the gravity!
I can also see that star cluster again ... right, time to plot a course and get to the bottom of this mystery.
Well, it turns out what they are is a cluster of hundreds of 'B' class stars (the cluster probably has a name, perhaps someone more knowledgeable reading this can tell me more?).
I jump to another one and wouldn't you believe it ...
.. another fleet carrier. Nothing for 5000 light years and then two come along at once! Alas this one doesn't allow docking permission so all I can do is grab a quick selfie.
This is Cmdr Turner of the Outworn Dalliances, somewhere in the 2MASS / PW2010 cluster, signing off.
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For anyone who enjoys following a jolly good adventure here on the forum I have another recommendation for you.
Cmdr @sgurr is attempting to do what I'd written off as basically impossible ... he's circumnavigating the crazy ice world of Pomeche 2C in an SRV!!!
Go over there and show some support, he's gonna need it!
srving-round-a-ridge-world-pomeche-2-c
Cmdr @sgurr is attempting to do what I'd written off as basically impossible ... he's circumnavigating the crazy ice world of Pomeche 2C in an SRV!!!
Go over there and show some support, he's gonna need it!
srving-round-a-ridge-world-pomeche-2-c
Indeed. Even as I was saying it I just knew you wouldn't do it that way
Thanks Alec o7
Day 6 - 23.12.3306
ROHINI
Not much to report today. I spent some time with EDSM trying to see if there were any new phenomena coming up in the next leg of the journey but I couldn't find anything especially interesting even with a 3kly search radius selected. No peduncles, void hearts, storm clouds, reel or umbrella molluscs, no amphora plants, no crystalline shards. Oh well, onwards to Rohini and Eudaemon Anchorage, docking permission granted, 07 commander.
While I'm in the system I also check out the local tourist beacon and then Orange Vista Incorporated, an installation that sits within fuel scooping range of the nearest star.
Getting kinda hot around here tho' ..
Before departing Rohini I drop in on Eudoxus Hithe just to tick that off the list ..
.. and then it's on my way again. Next stop will probably be the abandoned Conflux settlements which I'm quite excited to see.
ROHINI
Not much to report today. I spent some time with EDSM trying to see if there were any new phenomena coming up in the next leg of the journey but I couldn't find anything especially interesting even with a 3kly search radius selected. No peduncles, void hearts, storm clouds, reel or umbrella molluscs, no amphora plants, no crystalline shards. Oh well, onwards to Rohini and Eudaemon Anchorage, docking permission granted, 07 commander.
While I'm in the system I also check out the local tourist beacon and then Orange Vista Incorporated, an installation that sits within fuel scooping range of the nearest star.
Getting kinda hot around here tho' ..
Before departing Rohini I drop in on Eudoxus Hithe just to tick that off the list ..
.. and then it's on my way again. Next stop will probably be the abandoned Conflux settlements which I'm quite excited to see.
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This deserves its own threadDay 1 - 18.12.3306
And so it begins. After yesterday's excitement curating a little Buckyball Triathlon ..
.. for Frontier's 2020 Anniversary livestream in front of 10,000 Twitch viewers I am now definitely ready to leave the responsibilities of the bubble behind me for a while. I'm starting at Napier Installation in Ross 671 (site of yesterday's race) but despite the list in the OP here I don't yet have a firm destination in mind so initially I decide to just head down about 250ly to Kuwemaki (home of enigineer Hera Tani), don't know why, just somewhere to go while I settle in.
And so, farewell to Napier Installation, farewell to my friends in the ongoing Scarab Mastery Championship and farewell to the bubble - adventure beckons!
Kuwemaki is a cool location, but uneventful and I realise I have literally zero idea why I came here.
For my next tentative step out into the black (and perhaps that's what this is, just a couple of those hesitant little steps we take before the big leap) I decide to visit one of the lowest inhabited systems in the bubble, Guinasan.
Nothing there but a small outpost. Enough of this hesitancy ... I plot a course for Mammon Monitoring Facility, the first location on the list. Time to actually leave the bubble behind.
It's a very cool system, very pretty.
I have no need of its facilities tho' so I plot a course for the next stop along the Colonia connection highway (Hillary Depot on Blu Thua AI-A c14-10 : A 4 a) and leave this rather lovely asteroid base in style.
Then it's time to settle into what will no doubt become a very familiar rythmn - jump, roll in to a good fuel scooping trajectory, check the FSS, carefully time engaging the FSD against the last bit of fuel scooping with the aim of allowing the temperature to rise into the 90's but not beyond, and off we go into the next jump!
About 25 minutes later and I arrive at Hillary Depot to discover it's a superb location, with the planetary base sitting at the foot of an ideal little base jump.
Yeah, OK ... this journey's gonna be fun! Time to let one of SRV's stretch its legs a bit.
Right, that'll do for day one - 2,107 ly covered, some 20,000+ left to go.ColoniaAdventure here I come!
.... EDIT ... don't mind me ... it's in its own thread 
Day 7 - 24.12.2020
CONFLUX ALPHA BETA
Day 7 actually begins yesterday when I push onwards and arrive at the Conflux Alpha Site mid afternoon on the 23rd. I hadn't previously read up much on these so it's interesting to scan the logs and read the stories of these people who came out here to mark candidate earth like worlds that humanity could flee to in the event of a Thargoid civil war.
Alpha Site is a dark and eery place.
I only stay to read the logs and then press on to the Beta Site which is a far more interesting proposition, sat at the foot of a large mound on the edge of a huge 300km diameter crater (more on that later).
The logs here hint at an early report of a Thargoid hyperdiction but then strangely don't seem to follow up on it.
I decide to deploy the fighter.
Hmmm, that gate gives me an idea!
I spend quite a lot of time perfecting that. Sometimes (quite often actually) it results in this kind of thing happening.
Eventually (after I've finished throwing up) I manage to capture this image which I'm really quite pleased with.
That'll do for day 6, fighter retrieval sequence initiated.
And so we come to day 7. I decide to take off and re-scout the site from the air.
Its location is fantastic. It lies in the indentation on the far side of that crater's rim and there's another indentation on this side exactly mirroring it. The temptation to land and make the 300km drive from one side to the other is too great to resist.
Video of the journey will be uploading later today.
CONFLUX ALPHA BETA
Day 7 actually begins yesterday when I push onwards and arrive at the Conflux Alpha Site mid afternoon on the 23rd. I hadn't previously read up much on these so it's interesting to scan the logs and read the stories of these people who came out here to mark candidate earth like worlds that humanity could flee to in the event of a Thargoid civil war.
Alpha Site is a dark and eery place.
I only stay to read the logs and then press on to the Beta Site which is a far more interesting proposition, sat at the foot of a large mound on the edge of a huge 300km diameter crater (more on that later).
The logs here hint at an early report of a Thargoid hyperdiction but then strangely don't seem to follow up on it.
I decide to deploy the fighter.
Hmmm, that gate gives me an idea!
I spend quite a lot of time perfecting that. Sometimes (quite often actually) it results in this kind of thing happening.
Eventually (after I've finished throwing up) I manage to capture this image which I'm really quite pleased with.
That'll do for day 6, fighter retrieval sequence initiated.
And so we come to day 7. I decide to take off and re-scout the site from the air.
Its location is fantastic. It lies in the indentation on the far side of that crater's rim and there's another indentation on this side exactly mirroring it. The temptation to land and make the 300km drive from one side to the other is too great to resist.
Video of the journey will be uploading later today.
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Weird, all the YouTube videos no longer work for me... I assume those are the blank spaces between the pics.
You need to allow permission for marketing cookies (which now control the visibility of videos on the forum). If you clear all your cookies for this site (a google search will tell you how to do that for your particular browser), log back in to the forum and then either accept all cookies (or at least the marketing cookies) then the videos will reappear (and you wouldn't want to miss the next one ... well ... actually you might, it's quite long).
Looks like I won't be seeing YouTube videos again then! I'm sure I can find you there directly though.