Introduction
Hello travelers and explorers, tourists and discoverers!
As i reached elite in exploration some 2-3 weeks ago, i have come to figure out that i never actually made a full exploration log.
(I had a small one)
So as i reached Elite i thought i might just make a log of ALL trips i've ever done.
It has been an amazing journey, and i'm so happy i have done all these trips.
Exploration truly is the best part of Elite (Although not without it's problems, see sig)
and i hope i will see more people start doing it.
So here you go, my longest and most time-taking to create thread of all time, hope you enjoy ;
Chapter(s);
1. Early trips
2. To the rim
3. Small trips
4. First time at Sag A*
5. Rosette and general messing around
6. The last truly great trip
1. Early trips
My early trips were very, you know.. meh!
They were mostly exercise for me to get familiar with exploring, in the start i really hated it.
Although boring and earning me next to no credits at all, they were a big changer for me, as i ended up loving exploring because of them.
The first attempt
My first attempt at exploration started after i read this thread :
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=107994
A guy found a lone planetary nebulae at the edge of the galaxy.
He wasn't able to jump to it with his ship, so i fitted my anaconda for a long jump range and attempted the trek...
Well it was horrible.
(My first ever exploration screenshot, very weird looking back at it now)
There were a few factors that made the trip so horrible for me.
1. I was slow
Half because i was new and scanned every single star i jumped into, and half because the route planner was so bad at the time. (The time were plotting a 160LY route was unheard of)
2. It was so long away
The system itself was 9000LY away, and then you had to go back, it was a lot back in the day!
I ended up 2500LY from SOL after 3 days and gave up.
It gave me my first taste of exploration, and i hated it, but i didn't give up
Small trips changing exploration
After the disaster that was that trip, i ended up trying small exploration.
Some of it was fueled by the new station in New Yembo, other part by streamers like R4.
It ended up changing exploration for me, as i found beautiful planets (No earthlikes though) which made me want to actually do some proper exploration.
(Here are some pictures from those early trips, some may be from the first one, i don't know which)
2. To the rim!
My first ever real exploration adventure was to nothing else than...
The place i tried to visit in my first attempt!
(Image of the nebula, courtesy of CMDR Eldrazzi)
After doing all sorts of small exploration trips, i was ready to set out in the dark, for real this time!
I started actually not thinking of going there at all.
I followed my friend and notorious streamer Neon Raven as he was doing exploration for the alliance exploration programme.
He ended up turning around after 1500LY, but i continued, mostly because of the fuel this find gave me ;
My first ever earthlike! So close to home too!
At the moment i scanned it and recieved confirmation it was an earthlike, i decided it was finally time to do that trek! And so i did.
Due to my small trips before, i had learned how to travel much faster and soon i reached the rim, an amazing place which i'm almost 100% i will visit again soon.
I remember sitting up late at night, just a few 100 LY from it, ending up going to sleep and finishing it next day so i could enjoy it without being sleepy, it was a great time...
Of course to my luck, the guy who had found the nebula so long ago, actually managed to get there and claimed it.
(Pictures of the nebula)
But although seeing his named plastered all over the single neutron star in the system, it actually made me want to explore even more, as now i wanted to find my own, undiscovered stuff.
And well, i did on my way home.
My first undiscovered black hole (It was big at the time!)
And also my first ever Herbig Ae/Be
(Which was actually very funny as it was the first time i ever tried to look for starts labeled as proto-stars and this was the first i found despite 99.99% of all proto-stars outside the core are t-tauri)
The Star in the background is a T-tauri star.
Here's the original summary i made for the trip ;
(Wow it feels so weird reading that now)
The trip was a huge milestone for me, and it was really what made me stick with exploration.
3. Small trips
Actually it should be "One small (probably medium-ish) trip" as i can only remember a single one of them.
Blue planetary, Statue of Liberty and a Wolf-rayet (Featuring a friend)
Being so drugged with exploration, i set out yet again.. on the same day i came home!
At first i was unsure where i should go.
Should i scan near the bubble, go to a nearby nebulae or maybe something else?
I was thinking about this, until when i saw my friend some 3000LY out.
I asked him where he was going, and if i could follow.
He said he was going to statue of liberty, and that i was welcome to follow him if i pleased.
So i went out.
I'm not sure what happened, if he was a faster jumper than me, if his computer loaded systems faster than me (Which is a very real possibility, my computer is bad!) but he managed to go so fast, i ended up only catching up 200LY every 15 minute, and he was in an asp with much worse jumprange than my anaconda!
He then finally decided to stop at the Blue Planetary nebula, finally giving me some time to catch up.
Within half an hour i was there, and we scanned some systems together.
(Inside the Blue Planetary nebula)
We ended up making a few discoveries until we shut down and called it a night
My friend on the left and me on the right
I woke up the next morning and found myself alone, my friend wasn't gonna be here till noon.
So i decided to go to the Statue of Liberty nebula at once.
The nebula was pretty, but not so very interesting.
I ended up searching for rare stars, and found a Wolf-Rayet 400LY under the nebula with a HD-something name
"Sure it is discovered" i thought, but went there anyway.
-But it wasn't, to my suprise.
(System map of the star system)
After finding it, i rushed home and got it claimed, and i just got more into exploration than ever before.
4. First time at Sag A*
If you're a true explorer, you have to visit Sag A* once.
It's the unspoken rule of exploration.
So of course i had to do it too!
It was a long trek, longer than my whole roundtrip to the rim, but i did it anyways because : Glory!
(The core is very different from the rim, or anywhere else... it's just.. wow .. my god it's full of stars!
On my way i finally found something i had been looking after for some time :
Finally! An undiscovered planetary nebula!
And again, this only made me go out more, and find MOAR PLANETARY NEBULAE!
Anyways, i reached Sagitarrius A*, happy and satisfied.
My journey basically went normal on the way back, except for one, notorious find ;
Yep, earthlike orbiting a neutron star lol
Quoting myself from the "Post your weird systems" thread :
Original trip summary :
5. Rosetta and generally messing around
Argh! I had to go out exploring again!
I tried doing some mining in an asp, but i couldn't take doing anything else than exploring!
I was so space-mad i actually suicided an asp into an asteroid, effectively throwing away 500k on purpose.
So i did set out, once again.
A friend of mine (Not the one from before) had become inspired to explore by me and others, and even before i got home i told her that a trip to the nebula in my first long trip was a good destination.
So she went there, took pictures etc.
Of course she had to go home too, so i grabbed the opportunity to go exploring with someone, and had alot of fun.
We managed to meet up near the rosette nebula, and in turns we switched the lead and destinations.
We mostly seeked out rare stars, sometimes Giants, sometimes neutrons or sometimes class O's.
After a while, we split up and she went back home.
I ended up going to the White dwarf fields over the Rosetta Nebula, and scanning alot of them.
It was of course a bit boring, until i found still today one of my greatest discoveries ;
A pair of earthlikes!!
6. The last great trip
After returning from the trip around rosetta, i quickly decided to go out, AGAIN!
I felt pretty goalless for some time though, i went in the direction of the lagoon nebula, but had no goal and was pretty depressed.
That was until i noticed that the same friend that i had been exploring with near rosetta, was 5000LY in front of me near the galactic core!
So i did what i do best ; I just rushed to her
After scaring her as she had not noticed me coming, she told me she was going to the nebula nearest Sag A*
And i thought "Why not follow?"
So i did.
(Screenshot from the trip)
But before i even got to notice, we were suddenly in the core!
2000LY from the Nebula, my friend had to go, so i continued on my own.
I finally made it roughly an hour later, but well, just another nebula.
I ventured around in the core, wondering what do to until i spotted a planetary nebula!
I jumped in and... it was undiscovered!
(A beautiful shot from a ring system inside the planetary nebula)
I ventured around and found another one, but i decided to stop after scanning it as venturing around in the core had become so annoying due to the route planner not working.
So after just going randomly around, i discovered this :
Two Giant stars only 0.84LY away from eachother, i submitted them to Erimus' Galactic Mapping Thread and called them "The Betelgeusian brothers"
Now this made me actually very interested in the galactic mapping thread, so i looked on the maps and found the least explored sector of the galaxy ;
The intermidiate 4th quadrant
With not a single item on it, the intermidiate 4th quadrant was the least mapped region of space.
And for good reason too, it didn't have much.
I ventured outwards on my epic journey.
I quickly learned just how undiscovered it was, not a single system had a nametag on it.
First i went to the biggest and only (normal) Nebula in the intermidiate 4th quadrant ;
Eock Bluae AA-A H36
But you know, just another neb- wait what's that?
Is it... is it really?!
An earthlike embedded within the nebula!
I can die in peace now!
I named it Douglas' World after Douglas Adams (May he rest in peace)
Truly the most beatiful discovery i have ever made.
I continued for some time, until i spotted a planetary nebula.
I jumped into it, happy for my find... then i arrived.
The main star (Black hole) was orbited by a class K star, and it was coming right for me!
Quickly i had to supecruise out of there, and managed to take no damage, very lucky.
You can see the distortion effect from the black hole from everywhere in the system, it makes it look like an eye.
Which is the reason i named it "Eye of horror"
After that not too much happened, i made a few notable discoveries, but nothing special.
(Earthlike moon anyone?)
(Or perhaps an ammonia moon instead?)
(Aw what a cute baby... class O?)
After realising how empty the 4th quadrant was i did something which should never, EVER be attempted.
I flied 34000LY in two days
I finally returned home 18th of June 2015 (Or 3301 if you prefer)
Where i sold all my data to the sirius corp and reached elite..
Summary
So after about 3 months of exploring i have finally reached elite.
I have seen sights many can only dream of, i've discovered objects that were only previously theoretically able to exist.
It has been such an amazing journey, and you guys have been so amazing to talk to and share my findings with.
I have come to realise that elite has been so much about exploration for me, that now i don't exactly know what to do.
I want to go out again, but as of right now i don't know why.
I have fulfilled all my exploration goals, reached elite, traveled over 220000LY visited nearly 10,000 systems and discovered plenty of stuff.
If you liked this thread, please reply and +1 it.
It took me literally all day to write this, and get the appropriate pictures for it.
(There's a reason why it took me 3 weeks to finally just write it)
If there's anything you would like to know, or if you've found anything i've discovered or whatever.
Please feel free to say it to me, and i'll try to reply as fast as possible.
As for now, it will be the last thread i post in the exploration forum, i will continue to look around here and post in already existing threads though!
Fly safe commanders!
(Also sorry for any bad english, if you find any text errors please let me know so i can fix it)
