Navigation by Sight?

[Mr. Bridger]

This is probably a noob question and must have been asked before but I can't find anything.

Is there a way to identify something (Nebulae etc) that you can visibly see out of your cockpit canopy, not on the galaxy map. Or, put it another way, if I see something interesting and I don't know what it is, how do I set off in that direction?

 

[Major Klutz]

I usually try selecting star systems in my Navigation panel until I find one that is generally in the same direction.
Then I'll open the Gal Map and search for it in that direction.
It's easier the closer you get, so if I can't find it right away, I'll keep jumping in that direction until it get's larger and try searching again.

 

[Orvidius]

One thing I do is first roll my ship so that the galactic plane is horizontal, with "up" and "down" correct to what you see in the map. An easy way to get this right, is that the large Magellanic Clouds are "below" the galaxy. Then I'll look and see which direction the interesting object is, relative to the galactic plane, and the galactic core, and any visible nebulae, and then compare to the map. That at least gets me looking in the right direction. If the thing you're looking for is a nebula itself, then it's real easy to identify this way.

 

[Mr. Bridger]

I usually try selecting star systems in my Navigation panel until I find one that is generally in the same direction.
Then I'll open the Gal Map and search for it in that direction.
It's easier the closer you get, so if I can't find it right away, I'll keep jumping in that direction until it get's larger and try searching again.

Great idea, thanks.

 

[Mr. Bridger]

One thing I do is first roll my ship so that the galactic plane is horizontal, with "up" and "down" correct to what you see in the map. An easy way to get this right, is that the large Magellanic Clouds are "below" the galaxy. Then I'll look and see which direction the interesting object is, relative to the galactic plane, and the galactic core, and any visible nebulae, and then compare to the map. That at least gets me looking in the right direction. If the thing you're looking for is a nebula itself, then it's real easy to identify this way.

Thank you, I'll give that a go.