Newcomer / Intro Scanning Bacterium at night .... any tips?

[jpjeffrey]

I normally prefer sampling biologicals on the 'day' side of the planet, but I've found a few planets that are so far away from the star they don't seem to have a 'bright' side.
When the only organic on the planet is Bacterium, this can be very difficult - they appear to be almost invisible, even with Night Vision activated.
Any tips.....?

 

[HRDiagram]

I don't think night vision helps at all, aside from navigation.
When looking for a bacterial colony on a dark planet, I keep the lights on and fly slowly a few meters from the surface with the ship's scanner active, so that I get a blip if the reticle moves over a biological specimen.
It is especially hard when the colours of the surface and bacteria are very close, but knowing that bacteria generally prefer flat land, I tend to focus on featureless terrain, so that I don't get too many distractions.

If the planet has a Ne or Ar atmosphere, I don't bother with bacteria at all.

 

[jpjeffrey]

Thanks for the insights!

 

[aRJay]

On a low g world point your ship nose down about 150m up and use lateral and (what would normally be) up/down thrusters to move about that will give you the best view and should still blip the scanner.
When you have landed if you lose track of where the bacterium was just ping the sampler pulse and head for the glow, if you don’t see the glow turn towards where you heard a response.

Good luck finding bacteria in the dark is somewhat frustrating.