Tips for identifying a star cluster

CMDR Saberlin

CMDR Saberlin
Hi everyone

I'm currently on a 4000 light year passenger mission out towards the Formidine Rift. For the last 1000 light years or so there has been a distinctive cluster of stars ahead of me, and I'd love to be able to identify them.

This is the cluster in question:
v8TiJam.png

I thought that since it aligns closely with my next destination, I could open up the star map, align my destination with my current position, and I should be able to see the cluster on the star map. As you can see.... nope:
ivU6oBY.png

Question:
Is there a technique to identify distinctive things like this?

Regardless, does anyone know what this cluster of stars is? (it appears ahead of you as you head from the bubble towards the Children of Raxxla staging post alpha at EAFOTS BP-I D9-35)

Armin Out
 

goemon

goemon
a technique would be to

1) select system in left hand channel, till you find one lining up with the cluster
2) not your current coordinates and the coordinates of that system
3) do the math or just move into the general direction

...

another possibility is:

1. filter the galaxy map for the appropriate star class - that pic looks like an O and B class cluster.

2. move in your general direction in the galaxy map and watch out for a cluster of O/B stars

3. single lecet one of those stars, return, if it is the right one it should be marked in your hud
 

Erika

E
I went out exploring randomly to get my 5k ly and ended up there myself. Does everyone end up there? I saw the shiny thing and just kept moving towards it...
 

GreyAreaUK

GreyAreaUK
Erika said:
I went out exploring randomly to get my 5k ly and ended up there myself. Does everyone end up there? I saw the shiny thing and just kept moving towards it...
Click to expand...

I can't speak for everyone, but that's pretty much how it was for me, yes.

At some point the faint fuzzy became a brighter shiny and I entered the "We wants it we does!" state.
 

Para Handy

Para Handy
.... and the closer you get the more you see "First Discovered By" tags ... ;)

Yes the string of stars acts like a magnet I think. I tried heading off from the bubble heading way to the side, then when well past the distance of NGC 7822 (and nary a "discovered by tag" for hours) I headed towards it, sort of coming at it from behind and to the side WRT the bubble. You could tell when you were getting close by the number of "discovered by" tags.

I almost turned away as it looked a bit naff from that direction and I was fed up seeing commander's names but I didn't and I am glad I stayed on track. F D have done a great job in rendering a very atmospheric location, I even made my first game footage because of that.

That said, it was great to head off at an angle once more and again start seeing systems with nobody's name in it.

qJB9Q8U.jpg
 
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Ginger chris

G
GreyAreaUK said:
I can't speak for everyone, but that's pretty much how it was for me, yes.

At some point the faint fuzzy became a brighter shiny and I entered the "We wants it we does!" state.
Click to expand...

I don't know what you mean, I mean, what would distract someone fr.....oooh, shiny! honk jump honk jump honk jump honk jump...
 

Aereon Theed

Aereon Theed
Similar cluster is coming up for me. we must be in a similar location. I am running a similar passenger mission about 1000 LY past Colonia. Not sure if its actually someone spectacular or just the way the distant stars are lining up. Its happened twice on this journey. I'd take a guess and assume its just a cluster mass of stars that line up nicely.
 

SpaceMonkeyz

SpaceMonkeyz
Aereon Theed said:
Similar cluster is coming up for me. we must be in a similar location. I am running a similar passenger mission about 1000 LY past Colonia. Not sure if its actually someone spectacular or just the way the distant stars are lining up. Its happened twice on this journey. I'd take a guess and assume its just a cluster mass of stars that line up nicely.
Click to expand...

Sometimes it is a cluster of stars that line up nicely. Otherwise, it's NGC 7822!!!


There is another one between the bubble and Eta Carinae. can't remember what it's called though, I will try to find me SS of it.
 
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Sapyx

Sapyx
There are several of these "star beams" on the ED map, artifacts not of an ancient civilization aiming giant star-cannons at Earth, but of the selectivity of the real-world star data pulled from the star catalogues and inserted into the ED galaxy. These star beams almost always occur near nebulae, since the telescope was pointing at something interesting (the nebula) while it was taking the survey shots.

NGC 7822 is perhaps the most prominent, but others are the Orion Nebula (less frequently observed these days, since the Orion regions got permit-locked), and out towards the Eta Carina Nebula as SpaceMonkeyz noted. The one that's easiest to see on the Galaxy map, but impossible to see on the skybox because it's from an infrared survey and therefore composed almost entirely of M-class stars, is the one around NGC 1333, just Below the California Nebula - it's 300 LY long.
 
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