I saw Alec's mention of HIP 23759 9 A on the Circumnavigators' Discord and thought I'd take a brief look. HIP 23759 9 A - the name just trips off the tongue; I call it Wormwood - if you look closely at the pictures at the top of the thread you'll see why. All I'd planned was a quick fly round to see if there was anything interesting and landed on the lip of a crater with very few clear spots.
And there were some mountains to the north, so why not? Looking back from the summit to the crater.
No point in going back after such a short journey, so continued north and there's another summit waiting to be visited.
When the star is low things look a little dingy but the sky makes up for that.
It seems I was travelling north up the 79° longitude line, so it seemed worth carrying on for just a bit. This is the Citrus Plain offering several options: three more mountain ranges and the opening to a valley system.
It was a false lead - no valley, just a big hole in the ground that went nowhere. Aimed for the central massif with the intention of turning east to make the mountains on the right. Just a few more mountains - not a big deal. But the smooth top turned out to be a fractal exercise with no discernable top, so I named this region the Take Your Peak.
Due east to the next range. The mountains are really easy to climb, even at 65° slope, with lots of small plateaux, smooth ridges and shoulders to help you on the way to the top.
But it's sometimes difficult to plonk yourself exactly on the top with just the scanner image for guidance. Race to the top and you risk overshooting and dropping down the other side. Too slow and you may lack the impetus to get to the top and slide back down.
This is the tiny yellow speck in most of the other pics. And that looks like another massive peak on the far horizon.
On the way down I came across my first artefact in 300km. We've all got tales of NPCs doing impossible things, so here's mine.
Four peaks in a couple of days. I don't
have to go for the next one. I can stop at any time. One more won't do any harm. It's not like I'm going all the way round.