Ozric
Volunteer Moderator
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I have been saving up for a while now to buy myself an Asp Explorer to go... well, exploring
15 million Cr later I had myself one that has a 35Ly jump range on it and so I set off to find the Crab Nebula. When Gamma first hit I headed straight for the Pleiades Cluster in a Cobra with an 11Ly jump range, it took me the best part of a week to get there. In my new Asp it took about 1 hour The difference in the visuals of nebulae from the start of Gamma to now is quite striking and this is the main reason why I wanted to stop off here once again on my way out.
Once the Pleiades was behind me the next logical stop along the way was the California Nebula, it was looking quite impressive as it was getting closer and closer, however I'm not sure whether it was something to do with my graphics card or a general issue that the nebula looked a bit pixelated close up.
And then there was nothing except 6,000Ly between me and the Crab Nebula. I did encounter a few interesting things along the way, vast expanses of Brown Dwarf systems that I had to pick my way through to avoid running dry and I also found the Oceana system (See it as part of Erimus's great idea here) which had 4 Water World planets in it, although 3 of them did have Ammonia atmospheres. Water water everywhere, but not a drop to drink.
I got my first glimpse of the Crab Nebula when I was 1,300Ly away from it and I saw a green smudge in front of me.
It's amazing how much brighter the centre of the galaxy is the further you get away from it, just because it's where most of the stars are. I saw a very nice red Class IV gas giant and so I stopped to take a photo with the centre behind it and Barnard's Loop just over 5,000Ly away
Now the nebula was getting bigger, though the route wasn't as direct because there are a lot less stars around here but eventually last night, after almost 2 weeks of travelling I finally arrived I tried to find a good angle to take a picture of the nebula with a dark background, but the area that would have been perfect for taking the shot is completely devoid of stars. Still I managed to get this one from 11Ly away.
I then moved around and from a distance of 9Ly took this close up with the galaxy centre in the background, you can also see the Crab Pulsar in the centre of the shot.
The I jumped into the system for my first encounter with a Neutron Star. The one thing I was not expecting was the <1 second I had to kill the engines before I slammed into the proximity limit of the star. It was getting a bit late, but that certainly woke me up and cracked my canopy a little bit For those who have not seen one yet, notice how I am only 0.13Ls away and yet the star looks no bigger than those that are over 10Ly away.
It is a strange system with lots of other stars in it, but the view from inside the nebula is very nice indeed and the pictures really don't do it justice.
So here I am 7,024Ly from where I started my journey and I wasn't sure what to do next. I wanted to visit the edge of the galaxy but there is an abyss of around 4,000Ly between me and the outer arm and I am not sure if it is passable, so the journey to get there would be around another 12,000Ly. I have decided before I head off anywhere else I am going to head either straight up or down (relatively speaking) and try to get as far as I can so I can hopefully get a picture of the centre of the galaxy with a bit more depth of field to it. I'll add it when I get there
So thank you for reading and once again a huge thank you to all at FD for making a game that not only contains all of these great places in them, but one that makes me want to spend weeks just to get there to see them
I have been saving up for a while now to buy myself an Asp Explorer to go... well, exploring
15 million Cr later I had myself one that has a 35Ly jump range on it and so I set off to find the Crab Nebula. When Gamma first hit I headed straight for the Pleiades Cluster in a Cobra with an 11Ly jump range, it took me the best part of a week to get there. In my new Asp it took about 1 hour The difference in the visuals of nebulae from the start of Gamma to now is quite striking and this is the main reason why I wanted to stop off here once again on my way out.
I got my first glimpse of the Crab Nebula when I was 1,300Ly away from it and I saw a green smudge in front of me.
I tried to find a good angle to take a picture of the nebula with a dark background, but the area that would have been perfect for taking the shot is completely devoid of stars. Still I managed to get this one from 11Ly away.
and cracked my canopy a little bit For those who have not seen one yet, notice how I am only 0.13Ls away and yet the star looks no bigger than those that are over 10Ly away.
So here I am 7,024Ly from where I started my journey and I wasn't sure what to do next. I wanted to visit the edge of the galaxy but there is an abyss of around 4,000Ly between me and the outer arm and I am not sure if it is passable, so the journey to get there would be around another 12,000Ly. I have decided before I head off anywhere else I am going to head either straight up or down (relatively speaking) and try to get as far as I can so I can hopefully get a picture of the centre of the galaxy with a bit more depth of field to it. I'll add it when I get there
So thank you for reading and once again a huge thank you to all at FD for making a game that not only contains all of these great places in them, but one that makes me want to spend weeks just to get there to see them
