Greetings fellow explorers.
I've recently returned from a trip circumnavigating the edge of the galaxy and I thought I might share some of my findings here. I'm not much of a writer, so some of this log will be a little dry, (it's more an excuse to post a bunch of screenshots
), but I am including as much information about the systems I visited, links to their EDSM entries and anything I encountered reaching them that might help those wishing to make a similar trip.
If you are planing to circumnavigate the galaxy yourself, perhaps as part of The Dead End's Circumnavigation Expedition, (which I highly recommend you check out), then there might be a few places worth visiting listed here. I'd also recommend having a look at EDDiscovery, as I found that tool to be invaluable out in the black, (all the route maps in my post were taken from EDDiscovery).
For a little background on me, I've only embarked on what I'd consider two 'major' exploration expeditions, one trip to Sagittarius A* and one passing through a few nebula between the inhabited bubble and the EOCK PRAU nebula, then to the core and back home. Both of those trips left before Horizons, with the second returning a few months after the expansion launched. Since the engineers made themselves known, I've been upgrading my exploration Anaconda, the Daedalus, but apart from a few trips to Jaques station delivering meta-alloys and other repair materials, I haven't really been 'out there' just for the sake of exploring. In May I started feeling like it was time to put the ship to the test.
The Daedalus is a dedicated exploration Anaconda. It boast a reasonably impressive 63.78LY [66.86LY] jump range, but it's a lean ship, with no ship launched fighters, no weapons of any kind, a 4D shield generator, one SRV and two heat sink launchers, (no replicators or holodecks either). The 5D thrusters have G5 clean drive tuning and are heavy enough to boost, but only just, with the power provided from an G3 engines focused 5D power distributor. Two 5A auto-field maintenance units keep the ship's modules healthy and I went with the ridiculously priced 7A fuel scoop just because.
I set off from my home system of Avalon on May 20th, heading southwards and downwards out towards the galaxy's edge. The journey was rather uneventful in it's early stages. I stumbled upon HIP 7768, a mere 1600LYs out and still undiscovered. It's an unremarkable system, but I always find it gratifying to tag systems from existing star catalogues.
A bit further out I cam across my first undiscovered ELW of the trip in system SYNUEFAI BA-Z D1. While I rarely spend much time surveying any given system on my exploration trips, when I encounter an undiscovered ELW, I tend to scan the entire system. I've included the EDSM entries for all these systems as well as a couple of screenshots, just in case your looking to visit them yourself.
I passed through NGC 1893 on my way southwards. Long discovered of course, but the O type and neutron stars provided some screenshots opportunities and credits. I came across very few O types along the edge, so it was nice to visit one when I had the chance.
As I continued approaching the end of the route I could plot on a full tank with the stars this thin, I came across PHROI DRYIAE BT-L C10-0. This was the first ELW I found near the edge. I imagine the night sky as viewed from a world like this would be incredible. Pitch black contrasted by a glowing wound across the sky. On an unrelated note, the first planet in the system has a Polonium concentration of 0.9% which might make it a decent place to stop if you need some and are in the area.
I went down as far as HYPOE DRYIAE IZ-D D13-1 before deciding I should start moving along the edge 'proper' I could have gone further south by use of Jumponium, but was content to travel along near the edge of what the route plotter could reliably plot.
I pressed on clockwise along the bottom edge for around 9000LYs without coming across anything particularly noteworthy. It was then I decided to take the biggest detour of my trip and travel 6.5k Lys north to visit the Zurara megaship in SYREADIAE JX-F C0.
I had been here once before, shortly after it was discovered, but it was nice to see it again and to see something man-made after so long in the void. Plus it was an excuse to take a few selfies.
After returning to and continuing along the edge, I passed through the well trodden region at the end of the R-R line. I was kind of nice to see so many different commander names in that one little region of space. I made a point of stopping at DRYO AEB NG-Y D1 as one of the last way points along the R-R line.
Further on, I discovered TYROOTS HW-C D0. The system has an ELW paired with a terraformable HMC. The system is also a J3 system, with all the materials necessary for the FSD boosts scattered across the landable planets in the system.
While the ELW was a nice find I found the ammonia world in the system far more interesting, and decided to have a closer look.
Perhaps, if the ELW is ever colonized, a mining outpost could be set up near the rings. I wonder if Low Temperature Diamond are more common way out here?
My next destination was the SPONGOU FA-A E2 Planetary Nebula.
Unfortunately there are no landable planets and only one planetary body, a class 1 gas giant, but, again, it did make for some great pictures.
The next major destination on my trip was Westpoint Ormand along the western meridian. While the trip was reasonably straightforward, following the path laid out by other explores like CMDR Cordwainer Fish, who's route I stuck pretty close to usually just inside or outside where they'd travelled before, I did make a few notable discoveries.
SMAIDUE YV-C D0 contains 3 water worlds (2 terraforming candidates) and a binary ammonia world pair.
TYROORDS BE-E D13-1 contains an ELW and is a J2 system (lacks polonium and arsenic).
PHOOE PHLUE JV-G C10-0 contains a binary ELW HMC pair, (no landable planets).
FLYAE DRYAI KC-B D1-1 contains an ELW and is a J3 system (polonium 0.6%)
When I arrived near the the western meridian, I wanted to see how far along I could go without using any FSD boosts.
The furthest point I could reach was the FLYAE DRYAI LT-Q E5-0 system, around 200LYs from coordinates -32000,0. The system was made up of 2 T Tauri Stars, so I didn't have high hopes for it's contents. I was quite surprised when I found an ELW orbiting just over 400 LS from the main star. It's hard to imagine that an environment like the one we have here on Earth could have developed in a span of 194 million years, but then I'm not a scientist.
I travelled core-ward just enough to reach Westpoint Ormand, system CYUEFAI BC-D D12-4, although with no planetary bodies, the system did not hold my attention for long and I moved on.
My next destination was Erikson's Star, the 'westernmost' system in the galaxy first discovered by CMDR Allitnil.
On my way, I passed by a class 4 gas giant in system PRAEA EUP AT-U D2-2. I didn't scan anything else there, but i wanted a picture of it since it was red, (and matched my paint job!) I also passed through system FOJAU IL-P D5-0, which contains an ELW, and 2 landable worlds.
When I arrived in the vicinity of Star One (aka: BYAA THOI GC-D D12-0), the star closest to the Andromeda galaxy, (if I'm not mistaken), I briefly considered making the trip out there, but I didn't have the materials at the time and I was eager to keep pressing on. Of course, shortly there after I came to the realization that I would need a similar amount of jumponium to reach Erikson's Star and had to stop and collect some mats, but as for Star One, the closest I came to it was just inside 1500LYs. I did find another ELW not far from there as a consolation prize though, in system EULLOWRY HI-B D13-1, which also contains an ammonia world.
I visited another red gas giant in system OVOTHS HN-Q D6-0, and came across an ELW in system THRAIJOA YJ-I D9-2, which is also a J2 system (lacks polonium).
It was about this time I realized I needed to gather some more jump materials. It wasn't long after I started actually taking the time to scan some of the rocky bodies near the main starts of the systems I was passing through I found system AUZORTS NR-N D6-0, a J3 system with a 0.7% concentration of polonium on planet A3. I spent quite a bit of time here gathering enough J3 materials to make it across the Mare Desperationis and all the way out to Erikson's Star.
Not long after leaving AUZORTS NR-N D6-0, I stumbled across a Neutron star: DRYOEA FLYOAE CW-C D1 along the edge. Not terribly special, since they're a dime a dozen in the core, but it was the first one I encountered on my trip and it was kind of nice to get a couple hundred light year boost along the way. The system itself is pretty boring, containing only a couple of M class stars and a few rocky planets. The planets do have a few jump materials, but are sadly missing polonium.
I found crossing the Mare Desperationis to be a bit of a challenge. I made use of quite a bit of jumponium to blast my way through. If I had to do it again I might move coreward a bit more and cross the gap between the galaxy's arms. I made a couple of interesting discoveries before reaching the next way point on my trip:
EORD PROAE EN-Q D6-1 contains an ELW. There is a single landable moon in the system, (but in terms of jump mats, it only has vanadium and cadmium).
NEAMOO JC-D D12-0 contains an ELW, but again, contains few useful material, (and I didn't get a very good picture of this one).
DRYUAE BRUE LI-B C13-0 contains an ELW, and is a J3 system, though polonium is only 0.4% at it's highest concentration.
Just before challenging the void, moving westwards, I passed throughHYPUAE BRA MA-A D1, the second neuron star of my trip. No landable planets, but it could give you a boost on your way.
The trip across the void to Erikson's Star was a long one, or at least that's how it felt. Of the 4 galactic extremes, it's my opinion that this one is the hardest to reach. Having a ship that can do over 130LYs with a J3 boost was certainly an asset. I wouldn't want to speculate what the minimum jump range required would be, (and I'm sure there are others that have already figured it out). If you're really interested in seeing the exact route I took, you could sift through my EDSM travel logs, (though it's probably not worth it).
When I made it to Erikson's Star, (aka:SPHIESI HX-L D7-0), I realized why people make the trip. The views alone were totally worth it. I wasn't sure about it at first, seemed like a long way to go and a lot of mats to use, just to have to use the same number to make it back again, but I'm glad I did.
Anyhow, that's all I've got together at present. I'll try and get my notes from my trip organized and post the next quarter shortly. Takes forever to get all that BBcode working right, (let me know if you notice anything broken).
I've recently returned from a trip circumnavigating the edge of the galaxy and I thought I might share some of my findings here. I'm not much of a writer, so some of this log will be a little dry, (it's more an excuse to post a bunch of screenshots
), but I am including as much information about the systems I visited, links to their EDSM entries and anything I encountered reaching them that might help those wishing to make a similar trip.
If you are planing to circumnavigate the galaxy yourself, perhaps as part of The Dead End's Circumnavigation Expedition, (which I highly recommend you check out), then there might be a few places worth visiting listed here. I'd also recommend having a look at EDDiscovery, as I found that tool to be invaluable out in the black, (all the route maps in my post were taken from EDDiscovery).
For a little background on me, I've only embarked on what I'd consider two 'major' exploration expeditions, one trip to Sagittarius A* and one passing through a few nebula between the inhabited bubble and the EOCK PRAU nebula, then to the core and back home. Both of those trips left before Horizons, with the second returning a few months after the expansion launched. Since the engineers made themselves known, I've been upgrading my exploration Anaconda, the Daedalus, but apart from a few trips to Jaques station delivering meta-alloys and other repair materials, I haven't really been 'out there' just for the sake of exploring. In May I started feeling like it was time to put the ship to the test.
The Daedalus is a dedicated exploration Anaconda. It boast a reasonably impressive 63.78LY [66.86LY] jump range, but it's a lean ship, with no ship launched fighters, no weapons of any kind, a 4D shield generator, one SRV and two heat sink launchers, (no replicators or holodecks either
). The 5D thrusters have G5 clean drive tuning and are heavy enough to boost, but only just, with the power provided from an G3 engines focused 5D power distributor. Two 5A auto-field maintenance units keep the ship's modules healthy and I went with the ridiculously priced 7A fuel scoop just because.I set off from my home system of Avalon on May 20th, heading southwards and downwards out towards the galaxy's edge. The journey was rather uneventful in it's early stages. I stumbled upon HIP 7768, a mere 1600LYs out and still undiscovered. It's an unremarkable system, but I always find it gratifying to tag systems from existing star catalogues.
A bit further out I cam across my first undiscovered ELW of the trip in system SYNUEFAI BA-Z D1. While I rarely spend much time surveying any given system on my exploration trips, when I encounter an undiscovered ELW, I tend to scan the entire system. I've included the EDSM entries for all these systems as well as a couple of screenshots, just in case your looking to visit them yourself.
I passed through NGC 1893 on my way southwards. Long discovered of course, but the O type and neutron stars provided some screenshots opportunities and credits. I came across very few O types along the edge, so it was nice to visit one when I had the chance.
As I continued approaching the end of the route I could plot on a full tank with the stars this thin, I came across PHROI DRYIAE BT-L C10-0. This was the first ELW I found near the edge. I imagine the night sky as viewed from a world like this would be incredible. Pitch black contrasted by a glowing wound across the sky. On an unrelated note, the first planet in the system has a Polonium concentration of 0.9% which might make it a decent place to stop if you need some and are in the area.
I went down as far as HYPOE DRYIAE IZ-D D13-1 before deciding I should start moving along the edge 'proper' I could have gone further south by use of Jumponium, but was content to travel along near the edge of what the route plotter could reliably plot.
I pressed on clockwise along the bottom edge for around 9000LYs without coming across anything particularly noteworthy. It was then I decided to take the biggest detour of my trip and travel 6.5k Lys north to visit the Zurara megaship in SYREADIAE JX-F C0.
I had been here once before, shortly after it was discovered, but it was nice to see it again and to see something man-made after so long in the void. Plus it was an excuse to take a few selfies.
After returning to and continuing along the edge, I passed through the well trodden region at the end of the R-R line. I was kind of nice to see so many different commander names in that one little region of space. I made a point of stopping at DRYO AEB NG-Y D1 as one of the last way points along the R-R line.
Further on, I discovered TYROOTS HW-C D0. The system has an ELW paired with a terraformable HMC. The system is also a J3 system, with all the materials necessary for the FSD boosts scattered across the landable planets in the system.
While the ELW was a nice find I found the ammonia world in the system far more interesting, and decided to have a closer look.
Perhaps, if the ELW is ever colonized, a mining outpost could be set up near the rings. I wonder if Low Temperature Diamond are more common way out here?
My next destination was the SPONGOU FA-A E2 Planetary Nebula.
Unfortunately there are no landable planets and only one planetary body, a class 1 gas giant, but, again, it did make for some great pictures.
The next major destination on my trip was Westpoint Ormand along the western meridian. While the trip was reasonably straightforward, following the path laid out by other explores like CMDR Cordwainer Fish, who's route I stuck pretty close to usually just inside or outside where they'd travelled before, I did make a few notable discoveries.
SMAIDUE YV-C D0 contains 3 water worlds (2 terraforming candidates) and a binary ammonia world pair.
TYROORDS BE-E D13-1 contains an ELW and is a J2 system (lacks polonium and arsenic).
PHOOE PHLUE JV-G C10-0 contains a binary ELW HMC pair, (no landable planets).
FLYAE DRYAI KC-B D1-1 contains an ELW and is a J3 system (polonium 0.6%)
When I arrived near the the western meridian, I wanted to see how far along I could go without using any FSD boosts.
The furthest point I could reach was the FLYAE DRYAI LT-Q E5-0 system, around 200LYs from coordinates -32000,0. The system was made up of 2 T Tauri Stars, so I didn't have high hopes for it's contents. I was quite surprised when I found an ELW orbiting just over 400 LS from the main star. It's hard to imagine that an environment like the one we have here on Earth could have developed in a span of 194 million years, but then I'm not a scientist.
I travelled core-ward just enough to reach Westpoint Ormand, system CYUEFAI BC-D D12-4, although with no planetary bodies, the system did not hold my attention for long and I moved on.
My next destination was Erikson's Star, the 'westernmost' system in the galaxy first discovered by CMDR Allitnil.
On my way, I passed by a class 4 gas giant in system PRAEA EUP AT-U D2-2. I didn't scan anything else there, but i wanted a picture of it since it was red, (and matched my paint job!) I also passed through system FOJAU IL-P D5-0, which contains an ELW, and 2 landable worlds.
When I arrived in the vicinity of Star One (aka: BYAA THOI GC-D D12-0), the star closest to the Andromeda galaxy, (if I'm not mistaken), I briefly considered making the trip out there, but I didn't have the materials at the time and I was eager to keep pressing on. Of course, shortly there after I came to the realization that I would need a similar amount of jumponium to reach Erikson's Star and had to stop and collect some mats, but as for Star One, the closest I came to it was just inside 1500LYs. I did find another ELW not far from there as a consolation prize though, in system EULLOWRY HI-B D13-1, which also contains an ammonia world.
I visited another red gas giant in system OVOTHS HN-Q D6-0, and came across an ELW in system THRAIJOA YJ-I D9-2, which is also a J2 system (lacks polonium).
It was about this time I realized I needed to gather some more jump materials. It wasn't long after I started actually taking the time to scan some of the rocky bodies near the main starts of the systems I was passing through I found system AUZORTS NR-N D6-0, a J3 system with a 0.7% concentration of polonium on planet A3. I spent quite a bit of time here gathering enough J3 materials to make it across the Mare Desperationis and all the way out to Erikson's Star.
Not long after leaving AUZORTS NR-N D6-0, I stumbled across a Neutron star: DRYOEA FLYOAE CW-C D1 along the edge. Not terribly special, since they're a dime a dozen in the core, but it was the first one I encountered on my trip and it was kind of nice to get a couple hundred light year boost along the way. The system itself is pretty boring, containing only a couple of M class stars and a few rocky planets. The planets do have a few jump materials, but are sadly missing polonium.
I found crossing the Mare Desperationis to be a bit of a challenge. I made use of quite a bit of jumponium to blast my way through. If I had to do it again I might move coreward a bit more and cross the gap between the galaxy's arms. I made a couple of interesting discoveries before reaching the next way point on my trip:
EORD PROAE EN-Q D6-1 contains an ELW. There is a single landable moon in the system, (but in terms of jump mats, it only has vanadium and cadmium).
NEAMOO JC-D D12-0 contains an ELW, but again, contains few useful material, (and I didn't get a very good picture of this one).
DRYUAE BRUE LI-B C13-0 contains an ELW, and is a J3 system, though polonium is only 0.4% at it's highest concentration.
Just before challenging the void, moving westwards, I passed throughHYPUAE BRA MA-A D1, the second neuron star of my trip. No landable planets, but it could give you a boost on your way.
The trip across the void to Erikson's Star was a long one, or at least that's how it felt. Of the 4 galactic extremes, it's my opinion that this one is the hardest to reach. Having a ship that can do over 130LYs with a J3 boost was certainly an asset. I wouldn't want to speculate what the minimum jump range required would be, (and I'm sure there are others that have already figured it out). If you're really interested in seeing the exact route I took, you could sift through my EDSM travel logs, (though it's probably not worth it
).When I made it to Erikson's Star, (aka:SPHIESI HX-L D7-0), I realized why people make the trip. The views alone were totally worth it. I wasn't sure about it at first, seemed like a long way to go and a lot of mats to use, just to have to use the same number to make it back again, but I'm glad I did.
Anyhow, that's all I've got together at present. I'll try and get my notes from my trip organized and post the next quarter shortly. Takes forever to get all that BBcode working right, (let me know if you notice anything broken
).
