I think I just might have spotted Haley's comet.

Gods3nt

Gods3nt
I was just hanging around Saturn looking for the Hexagon. Feeling a little upset about it not being present I began charging my FSD and noticed something peculiar. I spotted a long gaseous tail off in the distant. I didn't hit me that it may have been what I thought it was until I noticed that the tail was fading quickly. I freaked, I tried to chase after it but unfortunately I lost it. I wanted to get a screenshot or something, but what bother's me is whether or not I may have just missed another one of Frontier's secrets. Otherwise if it was a comet or Haley's comet, since when was it hinted that comets would be present in the game?

Maybe I'm missing something, maybe it was just an anomaly. But I need a bit of clarity here.
 

Gods3nt

Gods3nt
ElleShaped said:
It was a drive trail from a ship, probably your own if you were turning quickly.
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It wasn't I can promise you that. I'm playing solo, there were no ships in sight. I scanned the area after I noticed this anomaly and found nothing, also my ship was stationary for about a minute.
 
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ElleShaped

ElleShaped
Well, there are no comets yet. And the fact that it faded makes it sound a lot like a drive trail... but who knows, maybe it was something strange.
 

azdour

azdour
Gods3nt said:
It wasn't I can promise you that. I'm playing solo, there were no ships in sight. I scanned the area after I noticed this anomaly and found nothing, also my ship was stationary for about a minute.
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I've seen some reports of engine trails remaining well after the ship has gone. So it could still be an engine trail.
 

GHDW

G
Ulysses_W said:
Doesn't a comet tail only happen when it's closer to the sun?
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That's right, the comet nucleus has to be within Jupiter's distance to the sun for it to start heating to form a coma which the solar wind pushes to form the tail. Right now Halley's is just past Neptune's orbit so if it is out there it will be virtually impossible to see in the game, unless there's a signal source on it.
 

Calaban

Calaban
I have seen several anomalies around the Sol system. there's one some 2 million LS+ out there, only targetable if your ship nose happens to pass over it (I think its voyager2), but haven't gone out to check it out.

Halley's Comet should be a destination like that. Knowing Fd's attention to detail (look at orion constellation, nebula, and not so faint Barnard's loop while in Sol and the constellations are right), if you google Halley's comet and figure out its orbit and head off in the proper direction, you may just find it.

but what you saw was a superbly backlit and detailed engine trail. gamma 2.04 addition that I noticed.

the fact is that comets are more persistent than some shooting star. they just don't move that fast. Even a python with 20% fsd can outrun it. its tail is a stream of gas that streams off of it as it lumbers along. visible for months and years... if you are lucky to see it within Saturn's orbit or so.

bit of warning, though: before you spend hours looking up its orbit and relative position at year 3300, and then travel there... all you will likely see us an ice asteroid, representative of many of the larger ones found in ice rings... with merely a notable name. as that is basically all it is; a big ice rock not bound to a planet. ho-hum
 
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CATPAIN KIRK

CATPAIN KIRK
GHDW said:
That's right, the comet nucleus has to be within Jupiter's distance to the sun for it to start heating to form a coma which the solar wind pushes to form the tail. Right now Halley's is just past Neptune's orbit so if it is out there it will be virtually impossible to see in the game, unless there's a signal source on it.
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Well - it would depend where it would be on december 14th 3300 - tried to generate an ephemeris for the given date, but unfortunatly the Horizon tool doesn't allow for predictions beyond 2200. I'm sure there's someone around who can easily figure it out.
 

bujin

B
CATPAIN KIRK said:
Well - it would depend where it would be on december 14th 3300 - tried to generate an ephemeris for the given date, but unfortunatly the Horizon tool doesn't allow for predictions beyond 2200. I'm sure there's someone around who can easily figure it out.
Click to expand...

In 3300, it will be nearly at its apoapsis (furthest distance from the sun in its orbit).

(Firstly calculated by (3300 - 1986)/75.3 = 17.45, so it will be 45% of the way around its orbit from the position in the sky that we last saw it in 1986, then checked using SpaceEngine, which seems to concur).


(EDIT: Good thing no one checked my maths before I had a chance to fix it... ;) Of course, they have to ignore the quote below too... )
 
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Gods3nt

Gods3nt
Holy crap, I had no idea. Keep in mind though that this was a strong possibility, I was unable to confirm what this anomaly was. It may have been a ship, despite the fact that I'm well aware of the trails they all lead. However, neither can I confirm that it was Haley's comet or even a comet at all. So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to take everyone's advice here, (including the mathematics formulas) and go look for a comet. Why? because suddenly I feel intrigued.
 
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