Holy grail in exploration?

[EISENHORN01]

So I'm out on another little jaunt, boosted out 2kly in my Aspx then dropped to Slow mo mode for the next 2kly. I must have struck lucky on my route as I've run across few claimed systems almost everything is (presently I'm well aware someone could be docking with all this data as I chat) unclaimed, il admit it's mostly been the run of the mill stuff but I have found one earth like (2 terrafomable water worlds in that system too) and a lot of water worlds, gas giants with life and my first ever terrestrial Ammonia world.
All this leads to my Question what's the Holy Grail we are looking for?

twinned earth likes? (I've found twin terrafomable water worlds)
multiple earth likes?
or
several systems close by with terraformable or earth like worlds that could create a mini bubble?

so what should I be looking for and get excited about?

 

[marx]

The Holy Grail? I'd say you should pick yours. You could try looking for stuff that are extremely rare, but we do know exist, because a few have been found: for example, trinary Earth-likes, four Earth-likes in the same system, Earth-like orbiting a system where there's only one L dwarf star as a primary, or an Earth-like moon with a moon of its own, and so on.
Or you could look for stuff that hasn't been found at all yet, but then, those might not have been found because they might not even exist.

I'd say you should fly around, keep an eye out for anything that might be interesting, and in the meantime, it might be a good idea to read up on the galaxy - both Elite's representation of it, and our knowledge of the real one we live in.

 

[EISENHORN01]

That's Y I'm asking it can get fairly monotonous at times and I don't want to miss anything by getting in attentive, the earth likes was fairly obvious and just as obvious is the more the merrier but I'd no idea of the L class dwarf with an EL orbiting so il keep an eye out for those. I suppose I'm asking outside of E.L.Ws what else is a high priority?

 

[Guy De Lombard]

My first holy grail was to find an undiscovered planetary nebula, then binary ELWs. I found both quite quick.
Currently I try to find an undiscovered green gas giant, no luck so far...

 

[Jaiotu]

The Holy Grail of Elite Exploration is, of course, Raxxla. Will we ever find it? Who knows.

Beyond that? I've set other discovery goals for myself. The biggest one, which took me two years to find, was a previously undiscovered ringed Earth-like world. That was a discovery goal that I set for myself on my first day out as an explorer. Another goal of mine was finding Cassiopeia A ... which doesn't appear to actually exist in the game unfortunately. It's also becoming increasingly rare to find an undiscovered planetary nebula or a supernova remnant with a visible shell.

Set your own goals and have fun!

 

[Jezzah]

With planetary nebula do those show up in the galaxy map? Or do you have to jump into the system and then discover it's a planetary nebula?

If it's the former then surely there can't be many of those left to find?

 

[Shir]

Being new to exploration i 'm researching the same thing. For now i go with whatever seems uncommon, or whatever lends itself to a nice photo, dual earth worlds, flooded water planets, multiple stars systems.. I found so much, and i haven't even reached Colonia yet

 

[Macros Black]

Raxxla. No other grail is more holy...

 

[who?]

The holy grail for me would be anything unique. After that, anything extremely rare. Given that this is a massive PG universe, neither are likely.

What I personally look for is an atmospheric world (Earth-like, especially) with a spectacular backdrop - a large nearby moon, or rings, or a binary star system, or many nebulae. Then I'll make note of it and revisit once the planetary landings is available for those planets. Can't wait.

 

[goemon]

Holy grail for me is an undiscovered real galaxy supergiant/hypergiant. Two down

a ringed ELW with a landable moon closer or as close as our moon to earth would be another, but i haven't found one yet.

 

[Zenith]

My personal target right now is to find a ringed ELW.
If I find one, then I'll be looking for a ringed ELW with a close landable moon that is outside the plane of the rings.

Possible? Sure.
Likely? Nope.

I can hope though.

(Edit: I hadn't read goemon's comment before posting)

 

[FixMeNow]

I think any ELW with rings is a really good find, only found one of those. Binary Earth like world's are more common but still pretty rare.

I think if you actively search for somthing specific you will get frustrated. Just Point toward's a Nebula and you will always find somthing cool on your way

 

[GunnerBill]

I'm looking for a small cup. Possibly used to drink wine at a supper evening and then later to catch blood.

Presumably the presence of a white carpet was the reason for the later.

 

[Hanekura Shizuka]

So I'm out on another little jaunt, boosted out 2kly in my Aspx then dropped to Slow mo mode for the next 2kly. I must have struck lucky on my route as I've run across few claimed systems almost everything is (presently I'm well aware someone could be docking with all this data as I chat) unclaimed, il admit it's mostly been the run of the mill stuff but I have found one earth like (2 terrafomable water worlds in that system too) and a lot of water worlds, gas giants with life and my first ever terrestrial Ammonia world.
All this leads to my Question what's the Holy Grail we are looking for?

twinned earth likes? (I've found twin terrafomable water worlds)
multiple earth likes?
or
several systems close by with terraformable or earth like worlds that could create a mini bubble?

so what should I be looking for and get excited about?

Other than maybe the aforementioned Raxxla, there is no "holy grail". There are things that we all look for, but there is no "holy grail", because it's more like a bucket list rather than a holy grail; most other CMDRs have already mentioned the things they look for. Some involve ELW structures - binary or trinary ELWs, ringed ELWs, moon ELWs, ELWs in unlikely systems such as an L dwarf. Some involve stars - O-class stars, Giants, Herbigs. Some involve distance and accessibility, getting to new stars and finding objects of interest in remote places; the area around Beagle Point and Ishum's Reach is saturated with discoveries for this reason, because people wanted the ability to write their name over 65k from Sol, but there are other remote areas, such as the very ends of the Perseus, Outer, and Scutum-Centaurus arms, that remain relatively unexplored. All are worthy goals to look for.

My point is this: Viewing one item as a "Holy Grail" while ignoring the others is like searching a field of wildflowers for a four-leaf clover. It'd be really cool to find one if you can, but don't forget to admire the beauty that's there.

 

[duckofdeath]

A system with five earth-likes is a holy grail, I guess? Four is the current record.
Personally, my holy grail is an landable planet with a gravity over 10G. So far, 9.90G is my record.

Raxxla. No other grail is more holy...

Holy / unholy. Depends on how you look at at...

 

[Jackie Silver]

I would love to find either a Green Glowing Gas Giant, or a Super Shiny Gas Giant. There are only a small handful of each known.

 

[EISENHORN01]

Well my fav find of the trip so far is probably worth very little credit wise but it taught me something I didn't know so in that sense it's priceless.
I've come across a couple of ElW and a lot of water worlds many of which have been terra-formable but until this system I'd no idea u could find high content metal worlds that are candidates for terraforming.
The planet just looked a weird colour yellow so I gave it a scan and bingo high content metal world that's a TF candidate as was its neighbour, so every day is a school day as they say. Only problem is I'm now wondering what else I've missed in my ignorance and also the journey backs going to be a long one if my OCD kicks in on the metal worlds.

 

[marx]

Not sure how I forgot about Raxxla. Yeah, seeing that it's unique and hidden, it would be the holy grail for anyone who found it.
However, FD have basically summed it up as "it exists, we know where it is, but we aren't going to give any clues". So I find it most likely that whoever will find it - if it'll ever be found - will only do so by nothing but luck.
Mind you, luck is a big factor with finding anything, but with a bit of research you can at least game chances to be a bit more in your favour.

 

[Ian9989]

Well my fav find of the trip so far is probably worth very little credit wise but it taught me something I didn't know so in that sense it's priceless.
I've come across a couple of ElW and a lot of water worlds many of which have been terra-formable but until this system I'd no idea u could find high content metal worlds that are candidates for terraforming.
The planet just looked a weird colour yellow so I gave it a scan and bingo high content metal world that's a TF candidate as was its neighbour, so every day is a school day as they say. Only problem is I'm now wondering what else I've missed in my ignorance and also the journey backs going to be a long one if my OCD kicks in on the metal worlds.

If you are using EDDiscovery, drop into the system, sit and scan the main star then hover over the icon for the star on EDDiscovery once it is scanned and you will see numbers for an estimated habitable zone for the star. Check the system map for any bodies that are not landable between the two figures shown for the habitable zone and very likely (but not 100% certain) they will be terraformable worlds. It takes a little of the excitement out of it I suppose but you can give yourself a better chance of 400k plus credits for it rather than 34k for the non-terraformable worlds.

 

[Jackie Silver]

If Raxxla exists - I've heard various competing claims from people who "know" where it is - then I expect that it will be found within or close to the Bubble. It could be something as straightforward as "from Lave, point to Leesti and fly x distance" like the generation ships, who knows?
In any case, though, it's probably very close to home. So it's not something that I have as an exploration goal, even though I'm a member (bit of an absentee member at the moment, to be honest) of the Children of Raxxla and I like finding hidden things.