Hi fellow explorers. o7
So, having left Lave on the 15th of August last year and caught a heavy case of post-Sagittarius A* fatigue that lasted a good few months, I finally made it back to the bubble on Sunday. Having successfully avoided the NPC ganking on my final entry into human space, here are the main notes and memories from that trip...
August 15th 3301
I depart from Lave in my Cobra MkIII, the "I'm Only Doing This So You Don't Have To". It's a typical exploring setting for the time, with A class FSD and power plant, D-rated stuff for the rest (including shields), a heatsink launcher, AFMU, etc. Jump range is just above 23LY and I've got 32t capacity for fuel for about 10 close-to-max range jumps. For some reason however, the rare-trading and high-tech systems touring that I spent time on to pay for the outfitting convinced me that an A2 fuel scoop was the best a Cobra could fit. Ouch. I paid for that oversight during my entire trip, spending way too long scooping when I itched to move out and jump.
Later in the day, I end up ridiculously overexcited about an icy planet so far out in a system that the previous explorers didn't bother scanning. This is my first untagged planet ever. I haven't actually checked if I got first discovery on it yet or if some other desperate newbie rushed to report it. That useless lump of ice is called R CRA SECTOR OS-T B3-1 5 and I'll fly back to it one of these days to drive on its surface. Yes, I'm emotionally tied to that frozen rock, sue me.
Looking back at this (dreadful) picture, it reminds me how at the time the hypercruise thrusters glowed with the same cool blue as in normal cruise, as opposed to the current boring yellow. Having to leave hypercruise just to get the blue flames on the screenshots annoyed me to no end some months later.
August 21st 3301
I'm 6.5k away from Lave, and a smiley-faced planet attracts my attention in the system view. I go out to get a closer look, and name it "The Crying Planet" because it looks so sad, and because it's easier to remember than BYEIA EUQ XB-A B57-4 A 6. I wish Horizons had happened already so I could visit its surface, but in hindsight, that wouldn't have helped: this is a HMC planet, so not visitable yet.
August 22nd 3301
I reached my first planned sight-seeing area: the NGC 6357 nebula, home of the Pismis-24 star cluster. Yay. I've got some pictures of the Pismis 24-1 main star but meh, you wouldn't care for it. It's just a big blue ball with a smaller one far behind. Here's a neat area of the nebula instead:
I also scanned my first black hole in here, in the CL PISMIS 16 system.
August 24th 3301
Still in NGC 6357, I find my first Ammonia World: PRIELUIA VW-U C3-19 B 7.
September 2nd 3301
My first Earth-like World, yay! PRIELUIA YQ-C D13-11 A 4 as it is known, is in co-orbit with a terraforming candidate water world. The system also has another water world, as well as two terraforming candidate HMC planets. Here's a sunrise on that distant Earth-like:
September 6th 3301
A second ELW discovered: EODGOLS FX-S D4-5 B 7. Two WW in the system too, as well as 3 terraformable HMCs.
September 8th 3301
I enter a new scenic area: the procedural nebula BLEAE AEWSY AA-A H22. I like it a lot, it's very dark with a threatening deep red colour all around. A new ELW is found but it's already tagged. For what it's worth, the name is BLEAE AEWSY HV-X D1-3 B 1. This place gave me what is possibly my favourite screenshot of the trip: a hazy ominous red sky sunrise:
September 9th 3301
I find my first neutron star, and it's already discovered too. Still, and though there's pretty much nothing to see, it makes me happy.
September 12th 3301
Orbiting the main star of two close binaries, I find a small hellish lava world which I'd have loved to see from closer to the surface. One day, one day...
September 13th 3301
I fly through the FROARKS something nebula, where I get to scan 3NS among other things.
September 20th 3301
Two notable first discoveries (well, possibly, I haven't checked since I sold my scans): an S-type giant star (EOS AOWSY NQ-B D14-647) and an ELW (DRYAU AOWSY NO-Y D1-3705 1).
September 21st 3301
Yet another ELW: DRYAU AOWSY RF-M D8-4316 B 1. There's a WW in the system too.
Septermber 25th 3301
I find myself in a region of space full of neutron stars. I'm around coordinates 430:701:20060, and I'm heading corewards while getting rich. Incidentally, I find my first yet-undiscovered NS: OGAIRY CW-U D3-5127. Yeah, at the time I thought it was a big event, haha. I had plenty of time to get sick of NS. In pretty sights, I found a neat tiny blue nebula with a black hole at its centre: OGAIRY HM-V E2-8699.
September 26th 3301
My first undiscovered black hole: OGAIRY LS-T E3-6194 A.
September 27th 3301
My first undiscovered MS type star: SHROGEA MN-S D4-611 A.
September 28th 3301
An eventful day at the races... First, some discoveries, with another ELW (SHROGEA SF-T C18-2346 A 2), a first undiscovered O class star (SHROGEA MX-U F2-2354 A) with 6 T Tauri and one Herbig star around, and an undiscovered BH with nothing else in the system (DUMBOOE AF-A F715). All was good until...
OMG!!! CLOSE BINARIES!!! This was to be the single bad jump of the entire trip, finding me sandwiched between two close binaries and overheating. A drop out of hypercruise, a heat sink and some prayers later and I was escaping with some heat damage that the AFMU dealth with. The damage to my underwear, I had to deal with myself, ugh. Warning to other commanders: avoid system SHROGEA KV-Z C28-277 like the plague it is.
September 30th 3301
I'm still writing down my BH discoveries, isn't that cute? I won't bore you with the list here but my notes still show them, haha, was I green... I also find a cool blue system with an O star and two B companions: DUMBOOE AF-A F3340.
October 3rd 3301
Made it to the Great Annihilator, yay! I'm pretty chuffed with myself, and Srg A* feels like a stone throw away now. The sight is underwhelming however. Like, whatever.
October 6th 3301
An infamous day... Update 1.4 hit, and exploration data seems lost. Also scans don't seem to work. Hmmmm... I won't move until tomorrow.
October 7th 3301
I can scan systems now, but the previous data is still missing. The Great Annihilator system is fully unexplored for me for example... I'm worried but I decide to slowly chug ahead towards Sgr A*.
October 8th 3301
It's now official: exploration data is borked and Frontier call a stop to exploration while they try and fix it. Fingers crossed...
October 9th 3301
Woohoo! FD fixed the exploration data and all my old explored systems seem to be back. I may have lost the few systems I explored on the 7th but ah, who cares.
October 10th 3301
This is it. Sagittarius A*. This is my 1770th explored system, 25843LYs out from my starting position. I'm chuffed, and I spend a while playing with the galactic background for cool pictures.
October 14th 3301
I kept going a bit further out from Sgr A* to round up my "Furthest Distance From Start" number to a prettier 26000LY. The system is called JUENAE IY-Y DI-10843 and is pretty unremarkable apart from a WW.
October 17th 3301
Another ELW: JUENAE HZ-C C1-4106 1.
October 19th 3301
Another ELW, this time in a NS system: BYOOMAO CA-Y D1-7416 B 3.
October 22nd 3301
First undiscovered Herbig star: WEPUE JM-V E2-7273.
December 22nd 3301
Whew, it's been a while. Space fatigue has hit me hard and I dropped out from my trip for a couple months. And as I'm slowly flying back towards human space, disaster strikes: the cable linking my X-52 Pro throttle to the stick disconnects, resulting in many random buttons from the stick being erroneously activated by the driver. One of these buttons is the "toggle hypercruise" control, which therefore emergency drops me to normal cruise at high speed, resulting in massive damage: systems damaged, life support offline, canopy cracked... O... M... G...
Thankfully the AFMU was still operational. I had it fix the life support first, before blessing the update that allowed it to repair the canopy crack. Massive relief, change of pants, complete removal of the "toggle hypercruise" button from the joystick, and exit to desktop to cool down. Between the space fatigue and the incident-induced stress, I wasn't to fly again for a while.
June 2nd 3302
Well, hello new year, and hello again Elite. I'm back in the cockpit, 21k away from Lave, and I really feel like getting back and trying out surface landings. On the way, I find another Ammonia World: EORLD PRI KC-V F2-3916.
June 9th 3302
Another ELW: FLOARPS CS-W C17-67 2. 14kLY to go...
June 18th 3302
The news reached me that Terry Port in system Garoku has an exploration data Community Goal starting... Right, this is it, I'll do a big push and get home soon. On the way, I find another Ammoni world (PYRAMOE OZ-H B55-2 3), an already-discovered-but-still-my-first Wolf-Rayet Star (CD-28 14266, in the NGC 6565 nebula), as well as a final ELW: BLEIA DRYIAE RQ-G C26-1 5. When I log out, I'm 2.5k away from destination.
June 19th 3302
With a bit of anxiety, I get within 8 jumps of Garoku and start jumping straight away, wasting no time on scooping. The interdiction reports have me on edge, and I don't intend to give anyone a chance to ruin my 10 months out at the very last second. Thankfully nothing happens, and I am in sight of the station, and marvel at the traffic control voices. Then, it's time for the last challenge: the mailslot.
Now I have no issues with it generally, but with so much data, I was a bit nervous and went it veeeeery slowly, while watching at all times for crazy NPCs dashing in or out. It went fine, and I was soon approaching my assigned pad.
And here I was, breathing out my relief. Safely landed back. It's been a while...
Selling the scans took a bit of time, and netted me about 68m credits, throwing me to the Pioneer exploring rank (with 10% progress, the screenshot below is bugged):
These 2912 scans sold at Terry Port placed me in the Top 10 commanders for the community goal. If other long distance explorers join, I should safely keep a top 10% slot at worst, for a good few millions more. For numbers, among other things, the scans contained:
- 137 water worlds.
- 7 ammonia worlds.
- 10 ELWs.
- 80 other terraforming candidates.
- 20 black holes.
- 247 neutron stars.
- 3 carbon stars.
- 1 Wolf-Rayet star.
- 0 white dwarfs.
Seriously, forget about the Thargoids, the real question is WHO STOLE ALL THE WHITE DWARFS FROM THE UNIVERSE??!
Aaaanyway, that will be a mystery for another day. In the meantime, I treated my ride to a fresh new paint job, updated the explorer rank logo at the front, and went out to chillax on random stations, just because I could.
And of course, I got a hangar bay fitted, and dropped a SRV on the first icy rock that presented itself. And while driving on the surface, I couldn't help myself to look up at the distant sources. There's so much left to go and see... So much to see, I'll be back out, some day... Just not today.
And this is it, the travel accounts of a random dude going out and back to Sgr A* in a fuel-scoop-challenged Cobra.
Some additional pictures and narrative are available on my exploration blog.
Too many more pictures are available on my Steam albums: the way in and the way back.
So, having left Lave on the 15th of August last year and caught a heavy case of post-Sagittarius A* fatigue that lasted a good few months, I finally made it back to the bubble on Sunday. Having successfully avoided the NPC ganking on my final entry into human space, here are the main notes and memories from that trip...
August 15th 3301
I depart from Lave in my Cobra MkIII, the "I'm Only Doing This So You Don't Have To". It's a typical exploring setting for the time, with A class FSD and power plant, D-rated stuff for the rest (including shields), a heatsink launcher, AFMU, etc. Jump range is just above 23LY and I've got 32t capacity for fuel for about 10 close-to-max range jumps. For some reason however, the rare-trading and high-tech systems touring that I spent time on to pay for the outfitting convinced me that an A2 fuel scoop was the best a Cobra could fit. Ouch. I paid for that oversight during my entire trip, spending way too long scooping when I itched to move out and jump.
Later in the day, I end up ridiculously overexcited about an icy planet so far out in a system that the previous explorers didn't bother scanning. This is my first untagged planet ever. I haven't actually checked if I got first discovery on it yet or if some other desperate newbie rushed to report it. That useless lump of ice is called R CRA SECTOR OS-T B3-1 5 and I'll fly back to it one of these days to drive on its surface. Yes, I'm emotionally tied to that frozen rock, sue me.
Looking back at this (dreadful) picture, it reminds me how at the time the hypercruise thrusters glowed with the same cool blue as in normal cruise, as opposed to the current boring yellow. Having to leave hypercruise just to get the blue flames on the screenshots annoyed me to no end some months later.
August 21st 3301
I'm 6.5k away from Lave, and a smiley-faced planet attracts my attention in the system view. I go out to get a closer look, and name it "The Crying Planet" because it looks so sad, and because it's easier to remember than BYEIA EUQ XB-A B57-4 A 6. I wish Horizons had happened already so I could visit its surface, but in hindsight, that wouldn't have helped: this is a HMC planet, so not visitable yet.
August 22nd 3301
I reached my first planned sight-seeing area: the NGC 6357 nebula, home of the Pismis-24 star cluster. Yay. I've got some pictures of the Pismis 24-1 main star but meh, you wouldn't care for it. It's just a big blue ball with a smaller one far behind. Here's a neat area of the nebula instead:
I also scanned my first black hole in here, in the CL PISMIS 16 system.
August 24th 3301
Still in NGC 6357, I find my first Ammonia World: PRIELUIA VW-U C3-19 B 7.
September 2nd 3301
My first Earth-like World, yay! PRIELUIA YQ-C D13-11 A 4 as it is known, is in co-orbit with a terraforming candidate water world. The system also has another water world, as well as two terraforming candidate HMC planets. Here's a sunrise on that distant Earth-like:
September 6th 3301
A second ELW discovered: EODGOLS FX-S D4-5 B 7. Two WW in the system too, as well as 3 terraformable HMCs.
September 8th 3301
I enter a new scenic area: the procedural nebula BLEAE AEWSY AA-A H22. I like it a lot, it's very dark with a threatening deep red colour all around. A new ELW is found but it's already tagged. For what it's worth, the name is BLEAE AEWSY HV-X D1-3 B 1. This place gave me what is possibly my favourite screenshot of the trip: a hazy ominous red sky sunrise:
September 9th 3301
I find my first neutron star, and it's already discovered too. Still, and though there's pretty much nothing to see, it makes me happy.
September 12th 3301
Orbiting the main star of two close binaries, I find a small hellish lava world which I'd have loved to see from closer to the surface. One day, one day...
September 13th 3301
I fly through the FROARKS something nebula, where I get to scan 3NS among other things.
September 20th 3301
Two notable first discoveries (well, possibly, I haven't checked since I sold my scans): an S-type giant star (EOS AOWSY NQ-B D14-647) and an ELW (DRYAU AOWSY NO-Y D1-3705 1).
September 21st 3301
Yet another ELW: DRYAU AOWSY RF-M D8-4316 B 1. There's a WW in the system too.
Septermber 25th 3301
I find myself in a region of space full of neutron stars. I'm around coordinates 430:701:20060, and I'm heading corewards while getting rich. Incidentally, I find my first yet-undiscovered NS: OGAIRY CW-U D3-5127. Yeah, at the time I thought it was a big event, haha. I had plenty of time to get sick of NS. In pretty sights, I found a neat tiny blue nebula with a black hole at its centre: OGAIRY HM-V E2-8699.
September 26th 3301
My first undiscovered black hole: OGAIRY LS-T E3-6194 A.
September 27th 3301
My first undiscovered MS type star: SHROGEA MN-S D4-611 A.
September 28th 3301
An eventful day at the races... First, some discoveries, with another ELW (SHROGEA SF-T C18-2346 A 2), a first undiscovered O class star (SHROGEA MX-U F2-2354 A) with 6 T Tauri and one Herbig star around, and an undiscovered BH with nothing else in the system (DUMBOOE AF-A F715). All was good until...
OMG!!! CLOSE BINARIES!!! This was to be the single bad jump of the entire trip, finding me sandwiched between two close binaries and overheating. A drop out of hypercruise, a heat sink and some prayers later and I was escaping with some heat damage that the AFMU dealth with. The damage to my underwear, I had to deal with myself, ugh. Warning to other commanders: avoid system SHROGEA KV-Z C28-277 like the plague it is.
September 30th 3301
I'm still writing down my BH discoveries, isn't that cute? I won't bore you with the list here but my notes still show them, haha, was I green... I also find a cool blue system with an O star and two B companions: DUMBOOE AF-A F3340.
October 3rd 3301
Made it to the Great Annihilator, yay! I'm pretty chuffed with myself, and Srg A* feels like a stone throw away now. The sight is underwhelming however. Like, whatever.
October 6th 3301
An infamous day... Update 1.4 hit, and exploration data seems lost. Also scans don't seem to work. Hmmmm... I won't move until tomorrow.
October 7th 3301
I can scan systems now, but the previous data is still missing. The Great Annihilator system is fully unexplored for me for example... I'm worried but I decide to slowly chug ahead towards Sgr A*.
October 8th 3301
It's now official: exploration data is borked and Frontier call a stop to exploration while they try and fix it. Fingers crossed...
October 9th 3301
Woohoo! FD fixed the exploration data and all my old explored systems seem to be back. I may have lost the few systems I explored on the 7th but ah, who cares.
October 10th 3301
This is it. Sagittarius A*. This is my 1770th explored system, 25843LYs out from my starting position. I'm chuffed, and I spend a while playing with the galactic background for cool pictures.
October 14th 3301
I kept going a bit further out from Sgr A* to round up my "Furthest Distance From Start" number to a prettier 26000LY. The system is called JUENAE IY-Y DI-10843 and is pretty unremarkable apart from a WW.
October 17th 3301
Another ELW: JUENAE HZ-C C1-4106 1.
October 19th 3301
Another ELW, this time in a NS system: BYOOMAO CA-Y D1-7416 B 3.
October 22nd 3301
First undiscovered Herbig star: WEPUE JM-V E2-7273.
December 22nd 3301
Whew, it's been a while. Space fatigue has hit me hard and I dropped out from my trip for a couple months. And as I'm slowly flying back towards human space, disaster strikes: the cable linking my X-52 Pro throttle to the stick disconnects, resulting in many random buttons from the stick being erroneously activated by the driver. One of these buttons is the "toggle hypercruise" control, which therefore emergency drops me to normal cruise at high speed, resulting in massive damage: systems damaged, life support offline, canopy cracked... O... M... G...
Thankfully the AFMU was still operational. I had it fix the life support first, before blessing the update that allowed it to repair the canopy crack. Massive relief, change of pants, complete removal of the "toggle hypercruise" button from the joystick, and exit to desktop to cool down. Between the space fatigue and the incident-induced stress, I wasn't to fly again for a while.
June 2nd 3302
Well, hello new year, and hello again Elite. I'm back in the cockpit, 21k away from Lave, and I really feel like getting back and trying out surface landings. On the way, I find another Ammonia World: EORLD PRI KC-V F2-3916.
June 9th 3302
Another ELW: FLOARPS CS-W C17-67 2. 14kLY to go...
June 18th 3302
The news reached me that Terry Port in system Garoku has an exploration data Community Goal starting... Right, this is it, I'll do a big push and get home soon. On the way, I find another Ammoni world (PYRAMOE OZ-H B55-2 3), an already-discovered-but-still-my-first Wolf-Rayet Star (CD-28 14266, in the NGC 6565 nebula), as well as a final ELW: BLEIA DRYIAE RQ-G C26-1 5. When I log out, I'm 2.5k away from destination.
June 19th 3302
With a bit of anxiety, I get within 8 jumps of Garoku and start jumping straight away, wasting no time on scooping. The interdiction reports have me on edge, and I don't intend to give anyone a chance to ruin my 10 months out at the very last second. Thankfully nothing happens, and I am in sight of the station, and marvel at the traffic control voices. Then, it's time for the last challenge: the mailslot.
Now I have no issues with it generally, but with so much data, I was a bit nervous and went it veeeeery slowly, while watching at all times for crazy NPCs dashing in or out. It went fine, and I was soon approaching my assigned pad.
And here I was, breathing out my relief. Safely landed back. It's been a while...
Selling the scans took a bit of time, and netted me about 68m credits, throwing me to the Pioneer exploring rank (with 10% progress, the screenshot below is bugged):
These 2912 scans sold at Terry Port placed me in the Top 10 commanders for the community goal. If other long distance explorers join, I should safely keep a top 10% slot at worst, for a good few millions more. For numbers, among other things, the scans contained:
- 137 water worlds.
- 7 ammonia worlds.
- 10 ELWs.
- 80 other terraforming candidates.
- 20 black holes.
- 247 neutron stars.
- 3 carbon stars.
- 1 Wolf-Rayet star.
- 0 white dwarfs.
Seriously, forget about the Thargoids, the real question is WHO STOLE ALL THE WHITE DWARFS FROM THE UNIVERSE??!
Aaaanyway, that will be a mystery for another day. In the meantime, I treated my ride to a fresh new paint job, updated the explorer rank logo at the front, and went out to chillax on random stations, just because I could.
And of course, I got a hangar bay fitted, and dropped a SRV on the first icy rock that presented itself. And while driving on the surface, I couldn't help myself to look up at the distant sources. There's so much left to go and see... So much to see, I'll be back out, some day... Just not today.
And this is it, the travel accounts of a random dude going out and back to Sgr A* in a fuel-scoop-challenged Cobra.
Some additional pictures and narrative are available on my exploration blog.
Too many more pictures are available on my Steam albums: the way in and the way back.
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