If you don't have any specific astronomical interests....
- ISTR that you can enable constellations in the galaxy map. Never used it by myself, so far.
- popular targets are the close-by nebulae. Orion, Barnard's Loop, Pleiades, Eskimo, Witch Head, Elephant Trunk, .... The problem with popular targets is, though, that everyone and their dog have been there already, so your chance of finding any virgin systems on the way can be quite low. Especially if you stay on the direct line - skip a couple of hundred lys up or down in that case, but take care not to get bogged up in a field of Brown Dwarfs. And Pleiades is pretty overrun at the moment with the ongoing Barnacles research by Canonn. There's also a list of nebulae over at the
Explorer's forum.
- Sag A*, the black hole at the center of the Milky Way is also a favourite tourist spot
- some explorers are currently on the way to Beagle Point, the furthest you can get away from Sol. Some others have already been there.
- others are going around the Milky Way - clockwise or counterclockwise.
I'm currently on my first longish trip at NGC 7822 (after visiting a couple of other nebulae), and after I return, I plan on doing '
The Weaver And The Cowherd'.
But: a weaponized Cobra isn't necessarily what most people would take for exploring. Again, check the Explorer's forum for ship/outfitting suggestions. But outside the bubble (what you can see in the Powerplay map), you'll only need the shields if you want to do planetary landings. You won't need the weapons. My exploration DBS can do up to 29 ly per jump (27 ly fuelled up), so I'll need 37 jumps for 1000 ly, while you'll need 48 (and an exploration Asp or Conda less than 28). If you want a cheap exploration vessel, take a look at the Adder.
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Forgot one thing: don't forget your fuel scoop, of course. But if you do run out of fuel (see Brown Dwarfs above), give the
Fuel Rats a shout.