What even is this?
Elite Observatory is a small tool which can read and monitor your Elite Dangerous journal for objects which might be "interesting" so you can go take a closer look.
What is "interesting?"
A lot of things, potentially. Currently there are built-in checks for:
In addition to all of the above users are able to create custom criteria to look for things they want to find. The documentation for how to write these criteria can be found on the Elite Observatory github page, linked below, or inside the sample xml that is optionally generated from the program itself. A collection of criteria that users here have created to find more objects can also be found in this post by Baxder.
I don't care about any of that!
Well, you can add your own. A set of user-defined criteria can be created so you can find the things you like. The caveat here is that I have not built a GUI for it, and the system for reading them is very crude at the moment (I'm working on it), so you'll be awkwardly editing xml by hand. There is a description of how to do so in the readme on github, which I will link below. If you need more help, give me a shout!
You said it monitors, do I have to alt-tab constantly to check on what has been found?
No! You can enable pop-up notifications or text-to-speech!
This sounds vaguely familiar...
Well, it should. /u/imathrowback on reddit created a very similar tool a few months ago, which served as my inspiration, so I'd like to thank them for that. They also said at the time: "maybe some nice soul will copy it and make it better and awesome"
I don't know how nice I am, or how awesome this is, but here you go!
What does it look like?
A little like this: Source: https://i.imgur.com/1CLqRT1.png
Where do I get it?
Behold: https://github.com/Xjph/EliteObservatory/releases
A few people I know have been testing earlier versions, but I've been waiting on getting custom criteria implemented before doing a wider release.
What do I need to run it?
Probably nothing you don't already have. Strictly speaking it requires .NET 4.5, but if you don't have that you're probably not running Elite either.
Is it safe?
Well, I say it is, but it's up to you whether or not you trust that. You can read the source on github if you like, and to be extra safe build it yourself.
Sure, let's take a look at that source!
https://github.com/Xjph/EliteObservatory
...
Yeah, there's some stuff in there I'm not super proud of. None of it is malicious though...
This is broken garbage!
Report a bug! Either on github or here is fine.
I have an idea!
Let me know! Or submit a pull request! Or fork the project and just do it all yourself! Or rewrite it all from scratch! Or fail to muster up the motivation and do nothing! I'm fine with all of those options.
Where else can I talk to you?
I now have a Discord server, you can find me there!
discord.gg
Elite Observatory is a small tool which can read and monitor your Elite Dangerous journal for objects which might be "interesting" so you can go take a closer look.
What is "interesting?"
A lot of things, potentially. Currently there are built-in checks for:
- Landable and terraformable (might not be interesting to look at, but you can go there and dream of what might be!)
- Landable with atmosphere (I know it can't happen.... but what if it did?!)
- Landable high-g (>3g)
- Landable large (>18000km radius)
- Orbiting close to parent body
- Shepherd moons (orbiting closer than a ring)
- Close binary pairs
- Colliding binary pairs
- Moons of moons
- Tiny objects (<300km radius)
- Fast and non-locked rotation
- Fast orbits
- High eccentricity
- Wide rings
- Good jumponium availability (5/6 materials on a single body)
- Full jumponium availability within a single system
- Full jumponium availability on a single body (pretty sure this can't happen, but I'm watching for it anyway)
In addition to all of the above users are able to create custom criteria to look for things they want to find. The documentation for how to write these criteria can be found on the Elite Observatory github page, linked below, or inside the sample xml that is optionally generated from the program itself. A collection of criteria that users here have created to find more objects can also be found in this post by Baxder.
I don't care about any of that!
Well, you can add your own. A set of user-defined criteria can be created so you can find the things you like. The caveat here is that I have not built a GUI for it, and the system for reading them is very crude at the moment (I'm working on it), so you'll be awkwardly editing xml by hand. There is a description of how to do so in the readme on github, which I will link below. If you need more help, give me a shout!
You said it monitors, do I have to alt-tab constantly to check on what has been found?
No! You can enable pop-up notifications or text-to-speech!
This sounds vaguely familiar...
Well, it should. /u/imathrowback on reddit created a very similar tool a few months ago, which served as my inspiration, so I'd like to thank them for that. They also said at the time: "maybe some nice soul will copy it and make it better and awesome"
I don't know how nice I am, or how awesome this is, but here you go!
What does it look like?
A little like this: Source: https://i.imgur.com/1CLqRT1.png
Where do I get it?
Behold: https://github.com/Xjph/EliteObservatory/releases
A few people I know have been testing earlier versions, but I've been waiting on getting custom criteria implemented before doing a wider release.
What do I need to run it?
Probably nothing you don't already have. Strictly speaking it requires .NET 4.5, but if you don't have that you're probably not running Elite either.
Is it safe?
Well, I say it is, but it's up to you whether or not you trust that. You can read the source on github if you like, and to be extra safe build it yourself.
Sure, let's take a look at that source!
https://github.com/Xjph/EliteObservatory
...
Yeah, there's some stuff in there I'm not super proud of. None of it is malicious though...
This is broken garbage!
Report a bug! Either on github or here is fine.
I have an idea!
Let me know! Or submit a pull request! Or fork the project and just do it all yourself! Or rewrite it all from scratch! Or fail to muster up the motivation and do nothing! I'm fine with all of those options.
Where else can I talk to you?
I now have a Discord server, you can find me there!

Join the Elite Observatory Discord Server!
Check out the Elite Observatory community on Discord - hang out with 52 other members and enjoy free voice and text chat.
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