Are there any time-saving tips for finding planetary POIs via coordinates?

[-VR- Max Factor]

To be accurate, Sandro said during that one livestream that they'd like to do it someday, but it isn't planned for the Beyond updates and will likely not be in Q4.

I'd love to see it, but let's not spread false hope.

I'm not spreading false hopes. That was what was said in a relatively recent live stream unless he was talking about something else. Pretty sure he wasn't though.

 

[Stigbob]

See what happens with the numbers, alter in increments of 90 degree's left then right 180 which is 90 from original heading. You'll be able to work out a rough heading quickly by the numbers shifting do full a 180 from original heading if they are shifting in the wrong direction. Once you've done that fine tune your heading by watching the numbers change and adjust in smaller increments so they both fall/raise at the right speed to hit the POI.

 

[Winterwalker]

To be accurate, Sandro said during that one livestream that they'd like to do it someday, but it isn't planned for the Beyond updates and will likely not be in Q4.

I'd love to see it, but let's not spread false hope.

To my untrained technical eye it's something the (Q4) codex might enable (imagine how many bookmarks, where and how to store and retrieve them) but first, the codex would need to be installed, so after that maybe. My guess is it's a pretty obvious and much requested thing with a better than average chance of coming eventually. Though probes - Q4 - might give you your POI pointer before that anyway.

In answer to the OP .. get as close as you possibly can in supercruise I'd say. You can also do little supercruise glides after you've dropped, sorted yourself out and decided a heading.

 

[DragonIV]

I just use this: http://edcodex.info/?m=tools&entry=451

Thanks--tried this last night and it worked quite well!

 

[cleonymus]

EDISON Planetary Surface Navigator;

This also gives verbal instructions and lets you build up a spreadsheet of locations.

 

[Rulki]

This: https://github.com/Uriei/EDPlanetBearing

Nice for VR because audio feedback

 

[Snowymonk]

First you need to understand the coordinate system. Starting at zero lat/long North is heading zero and latitude increases. South is heading 180 and latitude decreases. East is heading 90 and longitude increases. West is heading 270 and longitude decreases. The North Pole is at latitude +90 and the South Pole is at latitude -90. Longitude ranges between -180 and +180. Just like here on Earth in real life.

My recommendation is to get to the correct longitude first, then turn and find the correct latitude. Doing it in that order means you're flying straight lines both times. If you did latitude first, you'd have to fly a curved course to maintain that latitude while finding the longitude.

After a while you'll get a feel for how it works and can start cutting corners (literally).

Also, keep flying between the OC and DROP altitudes. The higher you are the faster you'll go. Remember that the surface curves away from you and your altitude will tend to increase unless you keep pushing your ship's nose down.

The way I tend to get to previously unknown coordinates is to align with one of the Cardinal points first (I tend to go either East or West in start moving the longitude coordinate towards the desired point - including a 180 degree turn if I am heading away from the target).
Once the other coordinate is static I then look to start deviating (either North or South) towards the correct latitude. I tend to go by 10 degrees steps to allow me to check my maths are correct before I get too far off course.

 

[Alec Turner]

I find this image really handy for navigating to planetary co-ordinates ...

Basically it tells you which heading to take to make the lat/lon numbers change in the direction you need to get to where you're going.

There are also a couple of really cool 3rd party add-ons which can help with this.

EDbearing (handy tool for calculating a planetary bearing based on your current co-ordinates and those of where you want to get to)
Planetary-Navigation-Bearing-Calculator
http://hotdoy.ca/ed/bearing/

E.D.I.S.O.N. (utility that reads co-ordinates and altitude from the player journal in order to calculate heading and angle of descent required to land at a specific surface co-ordinate, which it then relays to you via text to speach and/or a HUD overlay, effectively guiding you in to your landing spot).
E-D-I-S-O-N-Orbital-and-surface-navigation-Waypoints