Edel's Journey: Beautiful Worlds

Edelgard von Rhein · Aug 2, 2021

Edel's Journey: Beautiful Worlds

This is the journal of my attempt to circumnavigate the Milky Way in my DBX Hermes. I do not plan to stick to the outermost edge all the time but to visit waypoints or regions of seeming interest along the route. I hope to visit the cardinal points on the Galactic Rim, which are reachable with the Hermes' jump range.

I was inspired to undertake this journey partly by the animated series Kino's Journey. Kino travels from country to country on a talking motorrad, Hermes, staying for no more than three days and two nights in each, enough time to get familiar without getting attached and also to allow more countries to be visited than would be possible with a longer stay.

Like Kino, I play to stay in each location for at most three days and two nights. I am not doing a survey, however, and what I record about each area will not have the details of the Arronax Expedition. This will be a more philosophical affair, much like Kino's journeys. One difference is that Kino was travelling between 'civilised' locations and carried Persuaders (pistols) for protection. The DBX Hermes is unarmed, although the onboard SRV (Spin Cycle, what I usually call my SRV in Buckyball Racing Club events) is armed and I obtained a couple of weapons for myself from Pioneer Supplies before heading out, as well as one of each suit type.

The DBX Hermes is outfitted for long range exploration and has a jump range of 77.33 LY on fumes, thanks to a double-engineered FSD. She carries a single SRV, the Spin Cycle, and is unarmed, though equipped with several defensive utilities, including a double-engineered point defence turret (could be handy if I visit a Guardians Structure) and a lightweight shield.

Except where stated, exploration will be carried out in Horizons mode, due to my current hardware capabilities.
EDIT: after the Skull and Crossbones Nebula, my exploration will be in Odyssey mode unless otherwise stated, after acquiring new hardware.

Current Situation: Circumnavigation completed, with the Hermes docking at Robardin's Rock, Carcosa, June 9th 3308. All data and vouchers now sold.

Outward Voyage and Hyponia

My journey began on 24th July 3307, when the Hermes departed Robardin's Rock in the Carcosa system in the Colonia region and set a course for the border of the permit-locked region, Hyponia. This was a journey of about 14 KLY but thanks to the neutron superhighway it was completed in a single afternoon. The Hermes has a downsized fuel tank intended to improve route plotting in sparse areas and it could have been completed faster but when performing 300 LY jumps from neutron boosting the distance soon shortens!
Very little scanning was done at this stage, as most of the neutron stars visited had been tagged already but several were new and these systems I scanned in full, though I did no mapping.

Upon reaching the Hyponia border I began scanning systems as close to the border as possible. Mostly, these had not been tagged, to my surprise as I know several expeditions have surveyed the borders before.
As stated above, this was not a survey, I was just there to see what I could, to make a few memories and learn something new. I visited a number of different volcanic sites and found a couple of locations that were home to bioluminescent anemones. A visual highlight was a ringed water world moon in a polar orbit of a ringed gas giant, allowing for a splendid view of both ring systems. This reminded me that I had not taken a 'beauty shot' of the Hermes before setting out and it seemed an ideal location to remedy the situation, with the result shown at the top of this post.
Shortly before moving on, I encountered another highlight of this visit: a binary pair of Earth-like Worlds. (The system was untagged, so please forgive my not naming the system). Both are on the more massive end of the scale of what can be considered Earth-like, above 1.5 Earth masses with correspondingly high gravity.

approx. distance this leg: 14 KLY

Voyage to Aquila's Halo

This journey was of a similar distance to that between Hyponia and Colonia but only the first half utilised the neutron superhighway. After that, the journey resumed close to the Galactic Plane where the star density was higher and plotting the route to the more sparsely populated Aquila's Halo was easier.
There were a couple of interesting sights on the route, though not worth an extended visit by themselves.
A high metal content world was found in an extremely close orbit of its parent star in a system with six stars fairly close together (I nearly overheated when I arrived close to the primary, with another star very close by). This planet had been stretched into a rugby ball-like shape, although it was difficult to capture that in a screenshot.
A ringed gas giant with four ringed gas giant moons (and three terrestrial worlds without rings) was visited and the ringed planets made for a wonderful view against the Milky Way. The least massive gas giant was 2.6667 Earth masses, the innermost of the gas giant moons which harboured ammonia-based life.

approx distance this leg: 14 KLY

Aquila's Halo

The Hermes arrived in the Aquila's Halo region on Saturday 31st July 3307. After Update 6, an attempt was made to land on a world bearing Odyssey-type life. Sadly, the performance of my hardware was insufficient to permit any exploration and only a single first footfall was gained.
A number of volcanic sites were visited but no Horizons-era life was found. I also await the first Notable Stellar Phenomenon of my journey. No Earth-like Worlds were found, either, but a single Ammonia World was seen and water worlds and worlds that are candidates for terraforming were plentiful. One system had three water worlds (though none were terraformable) and two high metal content worlds that could be terraformed. There were many tags in this region but going away from the Galactic Plane yielded more undiscovered systems.
This far from the Galactic Centre, the view of the Milky Way is clouded by obscuring dust but is still beautiful and only a couple of hundred LY away from the Galactic Plane allows the central regions to be seen in a narrow strip across the sky that almost fits within a single field of view. This is my first sight on this journey of that distant view, that I will be seeing a lot of over the coming months!

Journey to Star One and the Western Cardinal Points

Leaving Aquila's Halo, my next targets are the Western Cardinal Points and Star One. This requires travelling to the Errant Marches region, which will take me several days.

Edelgard von Rhein · Aug 6, 2021

Errant Marches Stopover

After leaving the Aquila's Halo region the next key waypoint was anticipated to be Star One but, after travelling for a few KLY I decided to stop and look around in the middle of nowhere. Even the middle of nowhere is still somewhere, after all. This is the Errant Marches and about 40 KLY from Sol, so what secrets does it hold?

My first finding was a very long period high-metal-content world. With a semi-major axis of over 103 AU, the orbital period is just under 800K days. I doubt this is a Galactic record but I suspect it is my personal record. The eccentricity is about 0.1 (i.e. Mars-like) but it is the only planet in the system, so it was almost certainly captured from interstellar space.

I have passed through this sector before (as I have visited Star One before) but there remained plenty of forms of volcanism that I had yet to observe for the Codex, so I visited a few sites. Of these the most picturesque was a set of iron magma vents on one of a pair of metal-rich worlds in close orbit of their parent star (see the gallery below). I also encountered a very massive landable world with more then 30 Earth masses and a surface gravity of 4.94g but this is greater than any world I have landed on before and I was not disposed to take the risk on this occasion.

Being partial to the view above the Galactic Plane, I decided to see how far up I could go at this point and if there was anything of interest on the way. I soon found an Earth-like World, about 360 LY up, and this encouraged me to go further. A couple of jumps later I found my first biological signals since leaving Hyponia. After a long supercruise journey, during which the Hermes reached 937c in supercruise, a moon with Crystalline Shards was discovered. The moon is a source of Yttrium, so this is a good place to restock for premium boosts (and I left the moon's name in my screenshot in case anyone passing through needs some).

I could see a group of stars even further up but needed a jump of 144.65 LY to reach them, so I decided that this was worth burning a pair of J3 boosts to reach. It soon paid off, with a water world moon orbiting a Y dwarf having a good view of the Milky Way - but I felt that I could get even further up. Looking around, the highest star was 1008 LY above the Galactic Plane and I was able to reach it without using any more FSD boosts (although a number of jumps of 74.5+ LY were needed, so other visitors to this location might need some). It did not disappoint upon arrival, with three water worlds, one of which was ringed and had a small rocky moon of its own. There is absolutely nothing higher up than this that I could find in this region and the view across the centre of the Milky Way is devoid of foreground stars (the small point of light next to the rings of the water world in the image below is its moon).

I have now resumed my journey, content that this was a stopover worth every minute of my time.

approx. distance this leg: 4 KLY

iron magma vents

crystalline shards

ELW above the Galactic Plane

WW moon well above the Galactic Plane

Water Worlds 1008 LY above the Galactic Plane

Anticon · Aug 7, 2021

Bon voyage!

Edelgard von Rhein · Aug 11, 2021

Errant Marches en route to Star One

Having resumed my journey towards Star One, I have been passing through the Errant Marches region, close to the Galactic Plane. A journey of 10 KLY takes about 138 jumps but on replots as I took short breaks I seemed to make up a couple. There were several neutron stars on the route, previously discovered but with their systems not always fully scanned.
I checked the FSS spectrum after most jumps and mapped a handful of water worlds but only landed a couple of times to gather Codex entries on types of volcanism I had not yet found in this region. This included a moon in a close orbit of a ringed gas giant that was observed just emerging from its shadow. There were a number of active geysers in the field visited, as shown in the image below.

water geysers

Pressing on, I continued to occasionally map worlds of value and in one system encountered an Earth-like World around the distant secondary but the primary still had worlds that are candidates for terraforming. One of these, shown below, has an odd dark canyon, or perhaps a sea. This reminded me of the Valles Marineris on Mars. The world has 0.91g and a thick nitrogen atmosphere with traces of ammonia and water in equal measure. The Earth-like World has 0.99g and almost three atmospheres surface pressure and there are strong storm systems on the sun-facing point of this tidally-locked world, as can be seen in the image below.

canyon on terraformable high metal content world

ELW in a tidally-locked orbit with storms on the sun-facing point

After finding this Earth-like World, I seemed to find fewer water worlds than before but occasional high metal content worlds that are candidates for terraforming. Towards the end of this leg I encountered an undiscovered Ammonia World in a deep bronze colour that had a small moon, albeit in an orbit too distant for a screenshot from the surface, so the image below was the best I could manage.

Ammonia World against the Milky Way

At present I am just over 2 KLY from Star One and have a plotting solution for about three-quarters of that distance, after which I will have to tread more carefully. It is inevitable that I will also need to burn a couple of FSD boosts but I have plenty in stock and Arsenic is the limiting factor for my J3 boosts, of which I have over 70 remaining. I should reach Star One some time over the weekend, time permitting.

approx. distance this leg: 10 KLY

Edelgard von Rhein · Aug 15, 2021

Star One

The outward journey to Star One from my last waypoint is probably a bit over 2 KLY, as the route plotter sometimes took me in a sickle-shaped pattern to find a target star. I then found that I could only plot two jumps at a time and almost straightaway after that it was down to individually-plotted jumps. I have been here before in a ~60 LY range Asp Explorer but in a ~75 LY DBX it was much easier. Rather than pick my way carefully, I made use of the extended jump range to burn some jumponium and take a more direct route than on my previous visit.

There is something about being right on the Rim, with the entire Milky Way behind you and nothing but the deep black of intergalactic space in the other direction, something forbidding, eerie and frightening. It is intimidating but beautiful all at once, not unlike many spectacles in nature. To get here, in any ship, you have to exceed the limits of your FSD and going beyond like that drives you out of your comfort zone to somewhere that you feel different. Unwelcome. It is like taking your first step into Hades, or perhaps Heaven? You are as close as you can get to Andromeda and it is still a vast and distant shore and you sit on a speck of sand on a beach across the ocean.

The view from Star One towards Andromeda and back towards the Milky Way, taken from 30 KLs+ from the primary of Star One

Perhaps because of my more direct route here, I did not encounter the Notable Stellar Phenomena I observed previously in a nearby system and I am still yet to find any. On my way back I took a different route for about the first KLY or so and used a handful of standard FSD boosts and a couple of basic and premium to get back to where the star density allowed me to plot a route of 2 KLY to the edge of the outer arm. I also took the time to drive around on one rocky moon with iron magma lava spouts. I was hoping to find some Arsenic but did not see any, however the view was worth it, with a low sun-angle giving long shadows and the magma field being split across both sides of a shallow ravine and extending onto the surrounding plains.

Iron magma vents on a rocky moon about 500 LY from Star One

As I continued to make my way back from the Rim, I stopped only once or twice more to scan volcanic sites and a single biological signal source, this being more Crystalline Shards (on a moon that had already been discovered and mapped: Blo Euhn LA-A d0 B 7 b). I did not need to stop for materials (it was Antimony here) but I did enjoy the view, with this lonely cluster of microorganisms growing together so far form the rest of the Milky Way. After this, I did not find anything to land at again on this leg, though I did encounter an undiscovered gas giant with ammonia-based life in an extremely eccentric orbit (e = 0.9706). It is hard to imagine how life can cope with such an extreme situation but it has clearly found a way!

Crystalline Shards not far from Star One, with the Milky Way low in the sky

Having now returned from the Rim, I intend to continue down the outer arm towards the permit-locked Sidgoir region (and Bovomit, which is only about 1KLY beyond, from my angle of approach). This is about 10.5 KLY away and still within the Errant Marches - this region of the Milky Way is huge! I'll take my time and might meander a bit on the way there...

approx. distance this leg: 2 KLY to Star One and 2.5 KLY back.

Edelgard von Rhein · Aug 20, 2021

Visiting Manifest Destiny, the Western Meridian

The Western Meridian, based on Sol, is a system known informally as Manifest Destiny and I decided to pay it a flying visit, as it is several KLY from Star One and also out on the Rim.
It turned out to be more of a challenge to reach than Star One and required several days of plotting a couple of jumps at a time and burning jumponium, including J3 boosts on occasion. I was approaching the system from along the Rim, not heading outwards from the Outer Arm, so it was an unusual route. I saw some tagged systems but many were untouched. There seems to be a high proportion of water worlds, candidates for terraforming and also Ammonia Worlds, or perhaps that is because there are many stars of type A, F and G on the Rim. The ringed Ammonia World below was one of the more picturesque finds and is located in a system with a large ringed water world.

Ringed Ammonia World on the Rim

I continued to gradually approach Manifest Destiny at this angle, with my longest jump being over 149 LY. My find of this phase of the journey was this binary pair of Ammonia Worlds. Their statistics are very similar and they can justifiably be considered twins, the most significant difference being a slightly thicker atmosphere on one of them (by about 0.7 bars) leading to a 13K warmer mean surface temperature.

Binary Ammonia Worlds

Upon arriving at Manifest Destiny, I encountered Notable Stellar Phenomena for the first time on my journey. This system has but a single planet: a large icy landable with a surface gravity of just under 2g and there are two proto-lagrange clouds at its lagrange points leading and trailing its orbit, around the 4th star in the system which is a brown dwarf.
Lindigoticum Silicate Crystals and L09 Type Anomalies are present in both proto-lagrange clouds, as shown below. The L09 Type Anomalies seem to move slightly and issue a sound that reminded me of Thargoid Sensors. The Lindigoticum Silicate Crystals rotate slowly. Neither objects showed any interest in the Hermes and no change in behaviour when the ship lights were shone upon them.
I decided to land on the planet and try to get a good image or two, as it is in a very close orbit of its parent star, however it is actually lit by the M dwarf that is the 3rd star in the system, which is in a binary with the planet's brown dwarf parent. I struggled to set down on the rough surface of a central peak in one of the larger craters but captured this sunrise/sunset so it was worth it.

Lindigoticum Silicate Crystals at the Western Meridian

L09 Type Anomalies at the Western Meridian

The view from the surface of planet D1 at the Western Meridian

I set a more conventional route back to the Outer Arm upon leaving Manifest Destiny. At times, I feel like the discovery tags read like a roll call of expeditions on the Rim, likely the Dead Ends Circumnavigation Expedition, but I encountered an untagged system (except for the primary and secondary stars) that might be the most fiscally valuable yet, with six candidates for terraforming (including a water world) and one non-terraformable water world. I took the time to map all the worlds, though I suspect it is just short of my personal record (which is a system with four water worlds).
Finally, I encountered my only Earth-like World of this leg of the journey. The system has been mapped already, except for a couple of moons, including the Earth-like's moon which is in a tidally-locked orbit with a period of 32.4 days, however the host planet only has about two-thirds the surface gravity of Earth.

Earth-like World in crescent phase.

I have reached a point where I can plot a 3.5 KLY course back into the denser part of the Outer Arm, from where I currently plan to continue on to Sidgoir.

approx. distance this leg: 4 KLY

Edelgard von Rhein · Aug 24, 2021

Towards Sidgoir

Having departed the Western Meridian, I did not need any more jumponium to reach the region of higher stellar density on the Outer Arm. I found one or two neutron stars to boost my progress but whilst the stars were still few and far between I encountered a rare system with both an Earth-like World and an Ammonia World: Rifuia BL-P c5-0. The two worlds had previously been discovered and mapped. They are close enough to the Rim that imagery captured of the two show few, if any, background stars - the night-time on these worlds when positioned away from the Milky Way must be dark indeed, with only the Andromeda Galaxy and Triangulum standing out to the naked eye in the night sky.

Earth-like World and Ammonia World in the same system

By a strange coincidence, the next jump led me to a system that also contained an Ammonia World but this system is rare for different reasons.
The Ammonia World Rifuia OS-U d2-1 ABC 2 g is not only a ringed Ammonia World in a polar orbit of a Y dwarf but there is a terraformable world in orbit of the 3rd planet, a T dwarf Rifuia OS-U d2-1 ABC 3 c (The system has been previously discovered and the Ammonia World mapped). It is highly unusual to have a potentially habitable world further out in a system than an Ammonia World and this mechanism, with both bodies orbiting dwarf stars, is one of the few ways it can potentially happen but to have two dwarf stars in the right place with moons in the right place and with the right composition is improbable, to say the least.

Ringed Ammonia World moon in a polar orbit of a ringed Y dwarf

The journey towards Sidgoir led me back to places that are less-frequently traveled and the occasional first discovered bodies gradually became fewer and fewer. Even so, one picturesque pair of terraformable water worlds (Rifoa LV-G c10-0 1 and 2) with almost identical masses and in a close orbit, had been both tagged and mapped.

Binary pair of terraformable water worlds

The Hermes has now arrived on the borders of Sidgoir. It is my intent to stay in the region for three days, to see what I can learn and find here. Given that Sidgoir is only 200 LY across, I might include nearby Bovomit (1 KLY distant) in those three days.

approx. distance this leg: 8 KLY

Edelgard von Rhein · Aug 26, 2021

The Sidgoir Border

The Hermes has now spent three days on the Sidgoir border and will next move on to Bovomit, which should take less than a day.
The Sidgoir border was not entirely as expected. I lasted visited this region on The Arronax Expedition in 3303 and found that it had seldom been visited, with few First Discovery tags and only from a small number of CMDRs. I catalogued several Earth-like Worlds and Ammonia Worlds and plenty of green systems containing all the ingredients for FSD boosting during a stay of a few days. What I find now, with First Mapped being possible, is that in those four years perhaps only one or two CMDRs have visited and gained First Mapped tags. This gives the impression that the Sidgoir permit-locked region is one of the little-known secrets in the dark reaches of space.

Sidgoir is close to the Galactic Plane and borders on the Ootots sector which has a high proportion of low-mass stars and Preou Thoe that has a more even mix, perhaps with more F type stars. Both sectors produced a scattering of worlds suitable for terraforming and the occasional water world and one Ammonia World and one Earth-like World, both in previously undiscovered systems, were found during my stay. One thing that was quite noticeable was a tendency for the region to produce complex systems with 40+ bodies. The planet below was found in one such system, in this case with fifty-one bodies, and is one of two terraformable worlds in the system. It orbits a binary pair of gas giants, showing up in the system map as a trinary. I landed on the moon 2 a to look for jumponium materials, as both Polonium and Arsenic were present, but found only two drops of Polonium, however I captured the view below of a canyon with iron magma events emerging from the shadow of the parent gas giant.

Terraformable world in crescent phase orbiting a binary pair of ringed gas giants

Canyon with iron magma vents on a moon emerging from the shadow of its ringed gas giant parent

This time the scanning mechanics made it easier to find volcanism and I added a couple of entries to my Codex for the region but I also found extant life for the first time. This was another busy system and I was not sure what to expect as the surface conditions were compatible with both Bioluminescent Anemones and Crystalline Shards, the host world being a 1.31 g world that was also a candidate for terraforming. It turned out to host Crystalline Shards and I took a short drive around a field of them in the Spin Cycle, being careful of the very active volcanic activity, as shown in the screenshot below (the rare material on this world was Tellurium, which I have little use for at present so I took only a drop or two away with me).

A field of Crystalline Shards around an active sulphur dioxide fumarole

The final day revealed an Earth-like World in a busy system notable for all the forty or so worlds except a small metal-rich world being around the M dwarf secondary star. It is more common to find Earth-like Worlds around secondary M stars than primary but this was still a surprise and the planet has a binary companion that is a water world, as it has a gravity too high to be an Earth-like World yet it is still considered to be a candidate for terraforming.

An Earth-like World with its binary companion, a water world, in the background

The Hermes is in good condition and I repaired the FSD to full health during my visit. One AFMU is almost exhausted but the other is about 80% full. The Spin Cycle will soon need refueling and re-arming but I have plenty of materials so neither is an issue and the circumnavigation will continue on to Bovomit where I plan to also spend three days. After that, I have not yet decided but probably on an approximate course for Amundsen's Star.

Edelgard von Rhein · Aug 30, 2021

Between Sidgoir and Bovomit

The distance between Sidgoir and Bovomit is just over 6.5 KLY and I crossed over from the Errant Marches to the Formidine Rift region as I approached Bovomit. The Errant Marches is a huge region and yet it is hard to believe I spent so much time there. I also misjudged the distance between Sidgoir and Bovomit at first, as in my mind they were next door to each other and I had been thinking that they were much closer together, so I was surprised that I needed to plot a route just over 6.5 KLY in length to reach the Bovomit border. The journey therefore took a couple of days longer than expected.

Shortly after leaving the Sidgoir border biological life was picked up by the Hermes' FSS scanner around a distant icy moon in an unexplored system. Despite being over 350 Kls distant, I felt it worth checking on, as this region is still not well explored and you never know what might lie in wait. Ultimately, investigation showed another world home to Crystalline Shards. I took the Hermes down to bottom of a canyon about 8-9km deep and scanned them and the carbon dioxide ice geysers around them, of which one was particularly active. The image below shows that the bottom of the canyon had some interesting terrain and I did not attempt to take the Spin Cycle out to gather materials (Ruthenium was the rare material on this world).

Crystalline Shards and carbon dioxide ice geysers at the bottom of a deep canyon

Once over the border and into the Formidine Rift region, I found that this was my first visit to the region since regions were introduced. I therefore had an opportunity to gather a few Codex vouchers and visited some locations I might otherwise have ignored to gather them and try to get some good images at the same time.
The first location I landed at was an icy moon in between the inner and outer rings of a gas giant but sadly the outer ring was too faint to be visible. I scanned the water ice fumaroles and took the Spin Cycle out for a quick drive amongst them, catching the gas giant in full phase with the inner ring visible, as shown below.

Water ice fumaroles on a moon in between the rings of a gas giant

My next stop was a tiny metal-rich world that my scanners suggested hosted a 1.1% abundance of Polonium. The scanners also suggested Silicate Magma volcanism. I landed and took out the Spin Cycle to look for materials and imagery and found Sulpur Dioxide fumaroles and no Polonium but my Cadmium is now maxed out and I got some Niobium as well. This field of fumaroles is close to the rim of a crater about 2-3 km across and the surface gravity was only 0.12g. The Sun angle was low (as shown below) and the crater is probably in constant shadow, barring libration effects. The view opposite the Sun showed off the Galactic Plane and clouds of dust.

A field of sulphur dioxide fumaroles on a metal-rich world

I am just a few jumps away from the Bovomit border and once I arrive will spend three days and two nights there before moving on.

approx. distance this leg: 6.5 KLY

Edelgard von Rhein · Sep 1, 2021

The Bovomit Border

The Hermes spent three days and two nights on the Bovomit border and has now departed, already travelling about 4.5 KLY along the Outer Arm thanks to a couple of neutron star boosts (even out here a few are around).

The Bovomit border appears to be almost a tale of two halves. The side facing away from the Bubble and towards Sidgoir is relatively unexplored, in line with what was seen at Sidgoir, with more systems completely undiscovered and only a couple of CMDR names showing up as having First Mapped tags, indicating few have been there over the last three years or so. The side facing the Bubble does still have a few unexplored systems - indeed a couple of interesting ones - but fewer and more CMDR names were seen on First Mapped tags.

A recurring theme of the Hermes' visit to the Bovomit border was a combination of the desire to fill up a few volcanic entries in the Codex with resupplying my jumponium reserves, especially arsenic. As a result I visited many moons close in to a gas giant parent and also tried to capture the scenery, although the dim lighting far from a primary G, K or M star often frustrated this. One of my better earlier efforts was on this moon hosting water ice geysers in close orbit of a gas giant with water based life.

Water ice geysers and a gas giant with water-based life on the horizon

Mindful of getting some good imagery, I encountered this terraformable high-metal-content world orbiting a B type star and managed to capture it in a crescent phase showing off its active weather system. I do not visit B stars that often and the lighting was quite bright and the surface features are all but washed out, even 3200 ls from the star.

Terraformable high metal content world in crescent phase orbiting a B type star

My first success with finding arsenic came on this small moon-of-a-moon, that has a 2.9% abundance. I landed at a field of sulphur dioxide gas vents, some of which were very active, and drove around collecting materials in the Spin Cycle, which has now been refueled (and imminently needs a re-arm). A couple of arsenic drops and also a little niobium have helped to improve my reserves for an attempt to reach Amundsen's star. The lighting was good and the parent moon was captured in the full phase.

Active sulphur dioxide gas vents on a small moon-of-a-moon, with the parent just above the horizon

In looking for suitable moons to visit for scanning volcanic sites, this colourful moon was found in very close orbit of its gas giant parent's rings. It was tricky to get an image showing how close but the angle of the rings works well against the background of the Milky Way in this image, which shows also the highly inclined ring angle, with the rings being almost face on to the parent star.

A rocky moon in close orbit next to its gas giant parent's rings

The highlight of the Hermes' visit to the Bovomit borders came with the final jump before setting a course away from the region: a huge Earth-like World. With 2.4391 Earth masses and a surface gravity of 1.60g I have had to revise what I thought the limits on being Earth-like are, as I had previously thought they included a maximum surface gravity of 1.5g. Good to learn I'm wrong! The planet is cool but with a reasonably thick atmosphere with a very Earth-like composition and the same length of day, not to mention iron magma volcanism. I flew low over the surface, which has a couple of large continents but also oceans and took some imagery of a significant inland sea on the main continent and also a large lake with an outline that made me think of the Cobra MkIII from a distance!

Flying low over the main continent of a large Earth-like World

The Earth-like World in crescent phase from close orbit

The Hermes is now travelling down the Outer Arm and is still in the Formidine Rift region. I have to decide very soon where my next point of call will be but a couple of visits to volcanic sites have boosted my reserves of jumponium a little, especially my J1 boosts which have been in need of extra Vanadium and Germanium. I should repair the FSD soon but it is still over 90%. The Spin Cycle needs a re-arm but mats for refueling and rearming are plentiful and I have a good supply.

Edelgard von Rhein · Sep 4, 2021

A Lesson From History

After leaving Bovomit I headed straight down the Outer Arm for a few KLY before deciding to pay the Zurara a flying visit. My course to the Zurara was therefore not direct but approached from the denser part of the Outer Arm, where most systems are completely unexplored. I estimate my distance travelled to be about 12 KLY but it could be longer.

During this long leg, I was again looking to replenish my stocks of materials and to acquire a few Codex vouchers, as well as visit some scenic locations. I tended to visit two types of location to help with the latter condition: close-orbiting moons (including moons-of-moons) and worlds (especially in a binary configuration) close to their host star. The standout location from this leg was a moon in a close orbit of a gas giant (orbital period 2.1 days) with silicate magma vents spewing multicoloured flame. The vent shown below was especially active and alternating in colours, with a green and gold colour that would fade to red as it dispersed.

An active silicate magma vent erupting in a multicoloured display

Throughout this leg, I encountered many potentially habitable worlds but only one Earth-like World. It is fairly ordinary as Earth-like Worlds go, except perhaps for the short rotational period (0.6 days) and the presence of a single rocky moon, with an orbital period of 30.2 days (this corresponding to a distance of about 1 Ls). It appears to be an archipelago world with extensive oceans and no large continents.

An Earth-like World with a high degree of ocean coverage

There was only a single world with surface life observed during this leg, this being one of a pair of close-orbiting high metal content worlds around a B type star (the binary companion lacks both volcanism and life). Rubeum Bioluminecsent Anemones were the species present, though only a handful of fields were detected on the planet. They produced little in the way of raw mineral drops and I was not keen to collect much so as to preserve their habitat.

A pair of Rubeum Bioluminescent Anemones. Close up, it can be observed that the colours change and they produce eerie sounds like whistling.

Closing in on the Zuarara, this pair of massive ringed metal-rich worlds in close proximity were found in a tight orbit around a F type star. The distance between the two worlds is only 1 Ls. The most massive of the two has a surface gravity of 3.97g. These are the third and fourth planets in the system and the second planet is a volcanic metal-rich world that also has a ring system.

A binary pair of ringed metal-rich worlds in a close orbit, only 1 Ls apart

Before reaching the Zurara there was one further highlight of this leg: a tiny metal-rich world with a clearly non-spherical shape. Small worlds are often not spherical but this was more distorted than most and has a radius of only 274 km. It lies in a close orbit of a K type star and has an orbital period of 3.5 days.

A tiny metal-rich world with a non-spherical shape

It was a relief to finally reach Syreadiae JX-F c0, home to the Zurara. The Zurara orbits the innermost world in a close orbit, this world being the only candidate for terraforming in the system. I have been here before and scanned the logs but would encourage people to read them - this is a vital part of the modern history of Galactic exploration.
There was also a megaship orbiting the planet, this being the first sign of other (living) human spacefarers I have encountered on my journey so far.

The Zurara

I have not yet decided upon my next stop but I plan on broadly continuing along the Outer Arm. I'm not sure if Livingstone Point or Amundsen's Star is considered the proper Southern Meridian. I may head for Point Decision first, located in the Kepler's Crest region.

approx. distance this leg: 12 KLY

Edelgard von Rhein · Sep 9, 2021

From the Formidine Rift to Kepler's Crest

This was a long leg, that I estimate between 12.5 KLY and 13 KLY, that has taken me from the Zurara to within a KLY of Notus, the Southern Meridian. This leg has been characterised by the changing view of the Galactic Plane and an abundance of Earth-like Worlds, of which I encountered four (two were previously First Discovered and one of those also First Mapped). In most cases I captured imagery of the Earth-like World against the Milky Way, so perhaps my progress is best seen by considering the background of several of my images:
The first of these is still close to the Zurara, a site with Crystalline Shards - one of two sites in a single system in which I encountered surface life during this leg. The Milky Way here is shown to be very dusty with numerous clouds blocking out the background stars.

A field of Crystalline Shards in Hypua Hypoo sector

The second of these is a few KLY further on and the Milky Way during this time has become markedly less dusty but the Heart and Soul nebulae are still visible in the distance, just above the Earth-like World. The Heart and Soul Nebulae were visible for much of the journey throughout the Formidine Rift region and only near the Kepler's Crest border did they finally disappear from view.

A large Earth-like World in Tyrooppy sector, with the Heart and Soul nebulae visible against the band of the Galactic Plane

The third of the series shows a small Earth-like World with a thin atmosphere in Dryoi Hypa sector, not far from the border with Kepler's Crest. There are few dust clouds obscuring the Galactic Plane here and the Heart and Soul nebulae are no longer visible.

A small Earth-like World in Dryoi Hypa sector. With a thin atmosphere, it had calm weather at the time of my visit.

The final image in the series shows an Earth-like World in the Kepler's Crest region, with very little in the way of obscuring clouds in the Galactic Plane. At this point, the Hermes is closing in on the Southern Meridian, so Sol is almost in between here and the centre of the Milky Way. This is still the Outer Arm, however, so there is a clear view across to the Perseus Arm where there are evidently few clouds due South of Sol.

A Earth-like World in crescent phase in Hyuerth sector, with a handful of inward planets contrasting the system's Ecliptic Plane with the clear band of the Galactic Plane.

There were some occasions when I took out the Spin Cycle for a drive amongst a field of volcanic activity, although my material reserves do not currently require replenishing. It has helped to secure a few Codex vouchers and the sights from the surface have often been worth the visit. An example of this is another site with colourful vents of Silicate Magma. These seem to be possible on worlds displaying both Silicate Magma and Silicate Vapour Geysers volcanism in the system map (this is the latter). The field shown had a handful of active vents, the most active of which is shown from close to.

A field of colourful silicate magma vents

The scale of some of the eruptions can be hard to gauge from screenshots. Consider this geyser, below, the largest amongst a field of nitrogen magma vents I visited on a small moon rich in jumponium (with Yttrium, Niobium, Cadmium, Arsenic, Germanium and Carbon). It is much larger than it seems! In fact it housed a fragment of piceous cobble that was blown upwards beyond my scanner range when I knocked it off and it entered the stream and took a minute or two to come down.

The Spin Cycle adjacent to a nitrogen magma vent, seen in close-up

The same view zoomed-out: the vent is spewing material a long way up!

Not long before reaching my current location I encountered a system with a T class star in a binary configuration with a M dwarf, yet with each star also having small worlds in close orbit, with the innermost having an orbital period of about 1.0-1.1 days. I landed on this world, the innermost of two orbiting the T class star alone, at a site with Iron Magma vents and managed to get an image showing the parent star on the horizon and the nearby M dwarf with its planets. The glow of the Galactic Plane can just be seen on the horizon.

A field of iron magma vents in a valley on a small world orbiting a T class star with a period of just 1.1 days.

My next task is to reach the Southern Meridian. I'm at the point where the stars are starting to thin out but I should be able to find a route with the Hermes' jump range and my reserves of jumponium. Beyond that is Livingstone Point, certain to require more jumponium use. The southernmost system in the Milky Way is not around here, however: Amundsen's Star lies a considerable distance (>10 KLY) further East.
It is my intention to stay in this region around the Southern Meridian for three days and two nights before moving on.

approx. distance this leg: 12.5 KLY

Edelgard von Rhein · Sep 13, 2021

The Southern Meridian

The Hermes has now departed the region around the Southern Meridian, having spent three days and two nights exploring there. My next immediate destination is uncertain but I plan to continue due East, possibly aiming for Amundsen's Star.

The Southern Meridian has been extensively explored and almost everything has been First Discovered and most of it First Mapped as well. The system unofficially called Notus, the Southern Meridian system (Hypuae Euq ZK-P d5-0), has two water worlds, the innermost (seen below in crescent phase) being a candidate for terraforming. Livingstone Point is the furthest system due South close to the Meridian but both are fairly close to the point where the star density falls off away from the edge of the Outer Arm, unlike the Western Meridian where a trek of a couple of KLY is needed to reach the system. No premium boosts were necessary to reach these systems with the Hermes' jump range.

A terraformable water world in the Southern Meridian system, seen against the distant Galactic Plane.

After leaving Livingstone Point, I saw a number of stars further South but not near the Meridian and attempted to go as far South as I could. This entailed following the Galactic Rim due East, burning jumponium with almost every jump. I stopped off at this field of sulphur dioxide fumaroles on a metal-rich planet rich in Plutonium to gather some more materials and had a momentary scare when the Hermes dismissed itself: the field was deceptively large and I had gone more than 2km away. The surface gravity was 1.68g but the autopilot managed to land the ship upon recall without even damaging the shields.

A large field of sulphur dioxide fumaroles on a metal-rich world not far from the Southern Meridian.

I continued onward for some time, searching the Galaxy Map for more southerly stars, and noticed a highly oblate class II gas giant during a FSS scan of Hypuae Euq OM-W d1-0: planet 6 shows as almost 50% greater in diameter across its equator than across the poles. I tried to get a screenshot to show this, using one of its nearby moons to contrast the spherical nature of the two bodies but it is difficult to see outside the FSS.

A highly oblate class II gas giant with one of its innermost moons in transit.

Eventually, I found what appears to be the most Southerly system in the region, even searching the Galaxy Map for a couple of thousand LY both East and West. This system is Pheia Thua TO-Z d13-0 and it is roughly 16,502.7 LY due South of Sol. Its distance to Sagittarius A* is 42,410.33 LY. The system has been visited before and tagged and is home to three water worlds. One of the water worlds has a binary companion, shown, that is not a candidate for terraforming but I found the proportions of ice caps and the weather systems centred along the equator to be strangely picturesque. This world shows a part of what this expedition is looking for: in the distant reaches of space there is a beauty to some worlds, though no life lives there and it is only the passing traveller who can see and appreciate their grace.

A high metal content world with large ice caps and active weather systems, companion of a water world in the most Southerly system in the region of the Southern meridian.

After visiting Pheia Thua TO-Z d13-0 I began to work my way back out to the Outer Arm. I had burned a handful of premium boosts and plenty of basic and standard to reach this point but a couple of conveniently-located systems gave me a shortcut back using premium boosts rather than searching for a way around. In one of these systems I detected Biological signals for the first time in the Southern Meridian locale, on Hypuae Euq LA-A d0 BCD 2 c (the system has been fully tagged). It was about 145 Kls from the jump-in point and I rightly suspected that they would be Crystalline Shards, as shown below (the gas giant's ring is just visible on the horizon). The volcanism on this world is listed as Ammonia Magma, which is relatively unusual but I already had the Codex entry and did not need any of the materials on offer so I moved on.

A field of Crystalline Shards on a moon with Ammonia Magma volcanism.

I was slightly disappointed not have found any Earth-like Worlds close to the Southern Meridian but before I rejoined the Outer Arm I found this Ammonia World (which had been First Discovered but not First Mapped). It has a calm weather system, small polar caps and a high proportion of land coverage with large continents containing seas, rather than being separated by oceans.

An Ammonia World with a calm weather system with only a few scattered clouds.

As I rejoined the Outer Arm, I noticed that there was a cluster of a couple of dozen T and Y dwarf stars right on its edge. These stars are all procedural and located with about 25 LY of each other. It is hard to get across so I hope the Galaxy Map image showing route plotter paths is enough to clarify it. I visited most of them but found nothing more interesting than a distant gas giant with ammonia-based life. Those brown dwarfs with planets are almost all icy bodies and have been First Discovered.

Galaxy Map route plot showing a dense patch of T and Y dwarf stars clustered on the edge of the Outer Arm.

I have moved on from this region (and found an Earth-like World once I was back in the Outer Arm again) and plan to head broadly due East. Amundsen's Star is something I would still like to visit and also the most distant system from Sagittarius A* but there may be other places worth a visit as I'm out here and I may decide to cross back into the Perseus arm. I have never been to the Skull and Crossbones nebula and need to check how far I would have to go to reach it.

approx distance travelled from the Southern Meridian: 1.5 KLY.

Edelgard von Rhein · Sep 16, 2021

The Flowing Massif

This post is about one particular world in Phloing sector, as it will form the basis of a POI submission to the Galactic Mapping Project if I survive to sell the data on it. My apologies for removing the system name from one of screenshots below (I still have the original).

Whilst travelling East through the Kepler's Crest region, I encountered the Rocky Icy moon of a gas giant, shown below, and decided to take a closer look. It has carbon dioxide geysers listed as the type of volcanism present so I hoped to get a Codex voucher even if I could not get good screenshots.

A rocky icy moon in Phloing sector. The Massif is visible at the 12 o'clock position, with brown peaks against the normal blue-ish crust.

There was a volcanic POI that looked to be at the foot of the huge brown massif and I set that as my destination and entered glide. Glide did not last long.
Checking my altimeter and looking across at the collection of mountains, I estimate that the tallest peaks are at least 35km above the plains and ridges at their feet. It is difficult to be sure with the curvature of the moon also having an effect. My screenshot below, from close to the point I left glide, shows a guesstimate, although bear in mind the down angle of five degrees suggests that the value seen there is probably an upper limit (again, it's hard to be sure with the uneven surface).

A view towards the highest peaks of the massif from near to the point where the Hermes left glide.

I decided to get a closer look at the nearest peak and set a course. It took a few minutes, as the Hermes has a maximum boost speed of 361 m/s. I was surprised by how smooth the top of the mountain was given how jagged it had appeared from a distance. It was not a problem to land and take in the view. Touchdown coordinates are lat: -8.4097 long: 44.7104. I recorded a series of six images to show the panorama around the landing site.

A 360 degree panorama from the top of Flowing Massif.

It is possible that one of the other peaks is taller than the one I landed on.
I completely forgot to visit the volcanic site, showing as 114km distant from my landing location.
In considering the name for the potential POI I have decided to use the name Flowing Massif, this being a play-on-words with the sector name (and possibly also describing glacial motion on the moon if that ever happens). I considered names of Antarctic mountains and features but most of these were named after 20th century explorers and those who supported them; in many cases the individuals are still alive and I did not feel comfortable using their names in this way.

I am now continuing Eastwards and my next main POI is expected to be Amundsen's Star. If my current progress is maintained, I may reach it late this weekend or early next week.

Edelgard von Rhein · Sep 21, 2021

Cresting Kepler's Wave

This post details the journey through Kepler's Crest from the region around the Southern Meridian to the region around Amundsen's Star, except for the world in Phloing sector described separately in the previous post.
I have started my approach to Amundsen's Star and plan to leave this region tomorrow, being the third day after my arrival.

This was a long stretch with nothing in the way of nebulae or other large points of interest but there was plenty to find within the star systems here and, even though the star density is low, it never once felt desolate.
There were four Earth-like Worlds encountered in this stretch, none previously known. One found right at the start has a very dense atmosphere with 4.11 bars surface pressure. It has a mass close to that of Earth (1.0116 Earth masses) and a rotational period of 1.0 days but it is the 8th planet in its system and has an orbital period of over 1300 days: the interior planets show up well in the image below as they are all similarly large.

An Earth-like World in a distant orbit with the interior planets putting on a fine display.

The outstanding member of this collection of four Earth-like Worlds is also the most massive, with 2.0351 Earth masses, as it has a moon that is a candidate for terraforming. This Earth-like World also has an unusual axial tilt of 83.62 degrees and the sun-facing side is covered by a vast polar cap. The moon has a thin atmosphere of carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide and ought to be landable in Odyssey (0.02 atmospheres) and has an orbital period of 16.2 days. This is close enough to clearly see the ice cap on its parent, as in the images below.

An Earth-like World with a highly inclined axis of rotation and a polar cap facing the parent star.

The Earth-like World seen from the vicinity of its moon, which is a candidate for terraforming.

By a strange coincidence, very soon after I encountered the above Earth-like World with a highly inclined axis of rotation and a large polar cap accompanied by a moon, I encountered a water world with similar features, having an axis of rotation of -102.18 degrees. Here the moon is in a closer orbit, with a period of 4.5 days and the moon has no atmosphere and insufficient mass to be a candidate for terraforming, yet the view of the water world from the moon's vicinity is remarkably similar.

A water world with a highly inclined axis of rotation and a large polar cap facing the parent star, seen from the vicinity of its moon.

The final Earth-like World of this stretch had an interesting weather system, that displays the prevailing trade winds more clearly than I remember seeing on other Earth-like Worlds. The atmospheric pressure here is 0.96 bars with 21.3% oxygen, so very comfortable, although it is a bit on the warm side (300K) and the rotational period is a relatively long 1.9 days.

An Earth-like World with clouds showing the prevailing winds.

It was not only the Earth-like Worlds that stood out during the journey. There were two interesting trinary groups of worlds. The first of these consists of two ringed gas giants with a ringed terraformable water world with its own small moon. The image below shows the view from close to this moon, showing the ringed water world in crescent phase with one of the gas giants not far from eclipse displaying its atmosphere as a ring with its ring system just visible, whilst the other gas giant is off to one side, with its shadow across its rings and surrounded by its small family of satellites.

A ringed water world with its ringed gas giant neighbours, which form a gravitationally bound trinary.

The second trinary was found close to end of this stretch, consisting of three terrestrial worlds that are all candidates for terraforming and in fairly close orbits (all previously discovered and mapped, Leech TJ-I d9-1, planets 4, 5 and 6). I was able to capture a family portrait (see below). The trinary consists of an inner pair of high metal content worlds with a water world orbiting them. Despite the presence of a water world, I found the colours of one of the high metal content worlds to be most fetching and also took a solo portrait of this world against the plane of the Milky Way.

A trinary of terraformable worlds.

Close-up of one of the terraformable high metal content worlds.

This was a stretch that took a few days to complete and many other sights were seen. I check the FSS every jump where planets are present and usually stop and scan. Only an icy-only system puts me off (though if I were running Odyssey, there might be life on some of those). I stopped by a couple of volcanic sites and also found one system with Roseum Bioluminescent Anemones, which is always make for an interesting drive on the night side, with their swirling colours and seashell-like sounds. There was a metal-rich world just 194km in diameter, though almost spherical, and four Ammonia Worlds in total, including one with rings but no atmosphere. No Notable Stellar Phenomena were encountered: perhaps I will have more luck at Amundsen's Star.

The Spin Cycle exploring a field of Roseum Bioluminescent Anemones.

estimated distance covered: 11 KLY.

Edelgard von Rhein · Sep 23, 2021

Amundsen's Star

Amundsen's Star, Lyed YJ-I d9-0, is the most southerly point known in the Milky Way, and I have now spent three days and two nights exploring there and the immediate locality.
The nearest star is 88.10 LY away and the Hermes needed a handful of basic and standard FSD boosts to reach the system.

My first interesting vista came not long after I arrived in the region, with a large ringed Ammonia World angled to provide a contrast with the thin plane of the Milky Way in the background. Despite the distance, the Milky Way is clear and devoid of intervening dust clouds, although it has to be remembered that I am probably looking mainly at the Perseus Arm.

A large ringed Ammonia World seen against the plane of the Milky Way.

The route plotter got me to within about 500 LY of Amundsen's Star before I had to start using jumponium and then only occasionally getting a couple of jumps together without needing the extra range. At this stage, almost every system was fully tagged and many worlds were also First Mapped. My supplies of jumponium are good, so I did not land anywhere, although there was no shortage of metal rich worlds in particular with volcanism and suitable materials. I mapped a handful of candidates for terraforming and upon making the final jump to Amundsen's Star was delighted to find not only three water worlds but a Notable Stellar Phenomena and also the Fleet Carrier DSSA TTV Somdy (registration: LZQ-24Q).
There are only a handful of planets, so I mapped the system in its entirety and tried to get some good images of the water worlds, all of which have cloudy skies and blue oceans - none of them are ammonia-heavy or sauna worlds. The best image I could get was of the third planet, which is not a candidate for terraforming, seen below against the disc of the Milky Way.

The water world Lyed YJ-I d9-0 3.

Next I visited the Notable Stellar Phenomena, this being a Proto-lagrange Cloud. It contains Viride Gyre Tress and also P05-Type Anomalies and I closed to within 300 metres but they showed no reaction to the Hermes' presence. The Gyre Trees rotate at an apparently constant rate. I captured a close-up image of one which shows bud-like protrusions from the end of some of the 'stalks'. The P05-Type Anomalies move around a fixed location, and are a strong blue colour, generating a kind of smoke that stays close to them. They are not silent but the sound was faint and hard to describe, I remember it as wind-like and could not say that it seemed like it contained a pattern, nor did it vary as I approached.

A close up of a Viride Gyre Tree found in a Proto-lagrange Cloud at Amundsen's Star.

A P05-Type Anomaly at the same Proto-lagrange Cloud, with more Viride Gyre Trees in the background.

My final port of call at Amundsen's Star was the Fleet Carrier DSSA TTV Somdy. I did not dock here but flew around and tried to capture a beauty shot of this fine vessel, the result of which can be seen below. The vessel offered a friendly hail as I dropped out of supercruise but there were no security vessels on patrol and once I had finished taking images, I departed the system.

The Fleet Carrier DSSA TTV Somdy, stationed at Amundsen's Star.

I was pleasantly surprised that I had encountered Notable Stellar Phenomena again and even more so when I found another Proto-lagrange Cloud in the nearby Lyed XJ-I d9-0. This system has only a single planet, a water world, which has a single moon, yet this is enough for a Proto-lagrange Cloud to form. There are also Viride Gyre Trees here and this time I encountered P07-Type Anomalies. These Anomalies are noisier and both behave and look more energetic, with a ball of wool-like appearance and leaving sparks in their wake. I approached to within 300 metres but they did not react to the Hermes, allowing me to capture close-up imagery of them.

Viride Gyre Trees in Lyed XJ-I d9-0.

A P07-Type Anomaly in close-up.

Upon leaving this system, I explored the region close to Amundsen's Star, wondering if I would find any untagged systems or worlds. Eventually, heading upwards, I found a couple of systems with untagged icy worlds but for the most part similar tag names to the rest of this region. A few names were familiar from previous locations and I can recognise a couple that must have done a circumnavigation of their own, whilst I suspect one or two may have visited here just to go as far South as they could.
I have now left the immediate locality of Amundsen's Star, having spent three days and two nights here (not counting the day of the Odyssey 7.0 patch release, when I was not able to find the time to play, although I have now updated). I plan to update the family desktop to see if the frame rate will allow for me to engage in surface scanning and exploration. Otherwise, I am busy with irl activities for a couple of days and will resume my journey early next week, aiming for Sepositus Beacon, the farthest known point from Sagittarius A*.

Edelgard von Rhein · Oct 1, 2021

Kepler's Crest Towards Xibalba

As expected, my time in the cockpit has been reduced this last week or so and there have been days when I have been unable to play. I have been able to put in 30-60 minute sessions on those days when I can play, so I have been making progress. It is about 11.5 KLY from Amundsen's Star to Sepositus Beacon and I am close to the half way point. All being well, if things continue this way I hope to be there towards the end of next week.

There have been a few interesting sights that I have encountered in this time. On Sunday I found myself in a system with a ringed water world in a polar orbit of its ringed gas giant parent. This is only the second time I remember encountering this configuration on my circumnavigation and although the water world was not a candidate for terraforming I flew around trying to find a good angle to show off its rings and the parent. The result is below!

A ringed water world in a polar orbit of a ringed gas giant.

The next interesting feature is pure pareidolia, so perhaps the space madness is taking hold - see for yourself: tell me what the cloud formations on this Earth-like World remind you of.

An Earth-like World in Aidorr sector.

My answer:

A G clef. Music must have been on my mind this day!

There have been a couple of systems with surface life, all investigated and found to be Crystalline Shards. This was one such field in Aidomt sector, that was on a moon with methane magma volcanism. I did not drive around all the locations but at one I restocked my Yttrium to the max, which only needed a couple of drops.

A field of Crystalline Shards amongst volcanic vents on a moon with methane magma volcanism.

My Codex entries for volcanism in the Kepler's Crest region are far from complete and I stopped at this moon with water geysers listed as I still needed several entries that it might provide and also because I noticed the moon was close to the shadow of its host gas giant and that it might provide some interesting imagery. This was the best I could manage, which just shows off the gas giant's rings and the inner planets in the distance.

A field of water ice vents seen against the backdrop of the moon's parent ringed gas giant in a thin crescent phase.

The Hermes and the Spin Cycle are in good condition and I have this week repaired the Hermes' FSD after a long period in which a number of neutron star boosts had accumulated minor damage. It is now noticeable that the Andromeda Galaxy is closing in on the disk of the Milky Way after being on the opposite side of the sky: one small sign of progress!

estimated distance since leaving Amundsen's Star: 5.5 KLY

Alec Turner · Oct 1, 2021

This is a really nice travelogue Edelgard! Hadn't spotted it previously but subscribed now! Best wishes for the ongoing voyage.

And yes ... I see the G clef too so you're not completely mad!

Edelgard von Rhein · Oct 6, 2021

Entering Xibalba

The Hermes has made slow but steady progress this last week and has now entered the Xibalba region and is ready to begin the approach to Sepositus Beacon, the most distant system known from Sagittarius A*.
The Outer Arm continues for a short way past Sepositus Beacon and I have noted down six systems on the outer edge to visit and compare their distances to Sagittarius A*.

The last few KLY have been uneventful and no Earth-like Worlds have been found, although there have continued to be reasonable numbers of worlds that are candidates for terraforming, water worlds included, and two Ammonia Worlds with dense atmospheres and thick clouds obscuring most of their surface.
In the system Spliehm JF-A d1 I encountered a terraformable water world with a landable moon in a ten-day orbit (both bodies already tagged and First Mapped) and felt like going for a drive. The largest crater on the day side had a smaller crater within it, not centred but about half way from the centre to the vast outer rim. I set the Hermes down adjacent to the 4km high central peak of this smaller crater and deployed the Spin Cycle, then dismissed the Hermes to high orbit.
The view at the Spin Cycle's starting position is shown in the first image and from there it proved to be a short and smooth journey up to the peak, where the second image was taken. The parent water world was in crescent phase during the climb and is close enough to make out major weather systems, whilst the low sun angle provided strong shadows. The descent was much trickier and the sun-facing slope at this hour was uneven and very steep. I did not rush, as I only have the one SRV. Often I relied on gravity alone to accelerate the Spin Cycle. Eventually, with only 1% damage, I managed to reach the bottom and even had a bit of fun on the way down chasing fragments from a metallic meteorite in my path.
Once at the bottom I recalled the Hermes and had a look back at the mountain I had just traversed, shown in the third image.

The view looking up the slope of a mountain on Spliehm JF-A d1 2a.

Because it's there.

The view of the mountain from the sunward side after the descent.

Towards the end of Kepler's Crest, the First Discovered and First Mapped tags became more sparse and more undiscovered systems were visited, eventually becoming the norm. In one such system a trinary of terraformable worlds was encountered for only the second time so far on my journey. This trinary consists of a binary pair of water worlds around which a high metal content world orbits. The two water worlds are very similar with atmospheres of ammonia and a brown-ish tint, though one has significant cloud coverage whilst the other has few clouds. I captured an image showing the three worlds in the full phase (the high metal content world is at about the seven o'clock position from the upper-left water world) and also flew past the high metal content world and captured an image from the other side, showing the high metal content world in the crescent phase with the water worlds displaying a very narrow crescent or being in the new phase.

A terraformable trinary with a pair of water worlds and a more distant high metal content world.

The trinary as seen from close to the high metal content world in a crescent phase. The water worlds are visible on the opposite side of the parent star, one displaying a narrow crescent.

Today I finally reached Xibalba. I have only encountered two systems with tags, the first and the last, with over a dozen systems in between. On the edge of Xibalba I encountered a system with binary red dwarf stars each with their own cluster of close-orbiting high metal content worlds (and one metal-rich) and several icy circumbinary planets. The second planet orbiting the primary star had a very close-orbiting moon and silicate magma volcanism so I decided to visit a site, collect a Codex voucher and hopefully take some good images. There was a volcanic site close to the terminator on the planet-facing side and I made a careful descent with the Hermes, as the gravity was low and the orbital cruise approach can be tricky and there were mountains nearby that might be close to 15km high. The field of Silicate Magma Lava Spouts was fairly active and I managed to get the following image, taken from the Hermes less than 100 metres above the surface, though I did not take the Spin Cycle for a drive this time.

A field of Silicate Magma Lava Spouts on a moon with an orbital period of just 0.3 days.

I have not checked the exact distance but I think I am less than 2KLY from Sepositus Beacon and will spend the next three days and two nights in this locale exploring. If I have not already done so, I then plan to head out farther along the Outer Arm for a bit before heading back to a point where I can cross over to the Perseus Arm and continue the circumnavigation.

estimated distance since location reached at the end of the last post: 6.0 KLY

Edelgard von Rhein · Oct 11, 2021

Sepositus Beacon: This Far and No Farther

The Hermes has spent three days and two nights around Sepositus Beacon, Angosk OM-W d1-0, the most distant system from Sagittarius A* at 45,374.75 LY. She will now proceed some way towards the end of the Outer Arm and then head back in order to reach a point where she can make the crossing to the Perseus Arm, possibly at the Monoceros Beacon, possibly further west.

In the approach to Sepositus Beacon from the main spiral arm, the only biosignature encountered in this period was detected about 1 KLY away, on an icy body orbiting a ringed gas giant around the secondary star of a system with both the primary and secondary stars being red dwarfs, yet sporting six gas giants between them. The moon was over 86 Kls away from the jump-in point and home to carbon dioxide geysers volcanism but the rare material was tellurium so I did not stop to gather any. I found a biological site where the star the gas giant host was orbiting was exactly on the horizon and took the image below, scanned the Crystalline Shards, and moved on.

A field of Crystalline Shards capturing the first light of dawn, or the last of dusk.

My Codex entries for the Xibalba region barely scratch the surface so when I saw a moon with nitrogen magma volcanism I decided to get a scan and was lucky to find the moon emerging from or entering the shadow of its parent ringed gas giant. The angle of the gas giant's rings as seen from the moon combined with the parent star being so close to the limb of the planet was just right for a great screenshot and I visited all the geological sites near the terminator on the daylight side of the moon to try and get an image including a volcanic site in the foreground. Unfortunately, the volcanic sites I visited were all in deep canyons and it was not quite possible, so I took the image below from just above one, at about the level of the top of the canyon.

A ringed gas giant seen from close to the surface of a moon with many canyons 4-6 km deep. The point of light in between the parent star and the gas giant is another of its moons.

At the end of my first day in this region the Hermes arrived at Sepositus Beacon. The system has been fully tagged and mapped and is fairly typical for stars of this spectral type (it is a G type star with slightly more mass than Sol but almost the same temperature), with a handful of terrestrial worlds, the inner two being candidates for terraforming. The first image below shows the Milky Way seen from this most distant system. The second image shows the second planet in full phase with the utter emptiness of intergalactic space behind it. There is nothing beyond this - forever! (Until Elite: Because We Can is released in the real 3308 with a full Universe and living breathing life, but no pizza delivery until the first DLC

).

It does not look any smaller than this, anywhere.

Next stop - OK, turn around and find something else to scan. There's nothing else out there!

I scanned the Galaxy Map for systems that might be further away than Sepositus Beacon and visited them all over the next two days. I'll put the list and distances at the end of the post, so that no one has to visit them again to check and anyone near Sgr A* can confirm the distances (my handwritten notes are not exactly neat!).

During the next two days I found very few tags in surrounding systems. I thought for a while that I might have been the only one to scour the Rim thoroughly out here. One of the more interesting tagged worlds was Angosk OS-U d2-1 B 1, a tiny and highly irregular metal-rich planet with an orbital period of 1.0 days. It was challenging to get a screenshot as it was moving so fast it would fly right by before I could switch to the camera suite and point in the right direction! I eventually managed to capture a decent image in the crescent phase, although I had hoped for a silhouette.

A highly irregularly-shaped metal-rich world in close orbit of its parent M star.

Very few worlds are First-Mapped in this region but one very interesting pair of terraformable high-metal-content worlds had been. Angosk RX-L d7-0 A 1 + 2 are a binary pair of worlds with about a quarter of the mass of Earth and over 0.6g surface gravity and yet they orbit each other with a period of just 0.7 days. They have contrasting surface colours but both sport active weather systems - it would make for an interesting abode but they are probably destined to collide in the distant future.

A pair of terraformable HMC worlds in an unusually close orbit.

As even the systems with First Discovery-only tags disappeared, I thought that I was the first to visit some of these systems. I was wrong. My mistake was highlighted by a single tagged world in a system where not even the star had been tagged. This world was the Earth-like World Angonn AC-D d12-1 5, which is probably the most distant Earth-like World from Sagittarius A* at 44,987.61 LY. The view from this world back towards the Milky Way shows just how remote it is.

The most distant view of the Milky Way from an Earth-like World yet known.

After this I visited the remaining systems I had bookmarked on the very edge of the Rim. All were tagged and there were many First Mapped bodies, with not much left to tag, if anything. This showed that a number of explorers have been here but that they must have only 'honked' the systems they were passing through (what is known as a level 1 scan, which does not give a First Discovery tag). So as I head out closer to the edge of the Outer Arm I must remember that I might not be the first CMDR out here, though I could be!

Here is the list of systems I checked along the edge of the Galactic Rim and their distances from Sagittarius A*. (Remember, the most distant is Angosk OM-W d1-0 at 45,374.75 LY).

Eolls Hypai DC-B d1-0: 45,334.36 LY
Eolls Hypai FX-A d1-0: 45,329.04 LY
Angosk BA-A d0: 45,320.27 LY
Angosk DF-R d4-0: 45,279.68 LY
Angosk JL-P d-0: 45,290.53 LY
Angosk IG-Y d0: 45,371.11 LY (so close!)
Angonn BW-E d11-0: 45,293.17 LY
Angonn GC-D d12-0: 45,247.48 LY
Angonn RO-Z d13-0: 45,238.05 LY
Dryeae Aec KA-A d0: 45,229.61 LY

The next phase of the circumnavigation will be a long one, as after closing on the end of the Outer Arm a backtrack of 10+ KLY will be needed, perhaps much more, before reaching a suitable point to crossover the gap to the Perseus Arm. It is still a long trip after that to the Eastern Meridian and I will have to consider suitable waypoints along the journey. I intend to report my progress here as before. IRL is demanding my time at the moment but most days I am able to manage a 30-60 min session in the cockpit.