To the core, and beyond!... in an Imperial Eagle?

[Draco25240]

Log #90, 1st August 3302 - 3 Galactic Records

Well, that was a nice, lucky day today, it seems like I've set not only 1, but 3 new galactic records today!!!

Quick summary of Day 90:
- Ran into another Earth-like that was the moon of a HMC planet.
- Crossed the 20,000 Ly line.
- Discovered a planetary ring that beats not only my own personal best for planetary ring, but it beats 3 galactic records for planetary rings as well. As of the last update of the record book, it beats the current record for single ring with largest outer radius by 2.2x, widest single ring by 1.5x, and heaviest ring by a whopping 4x. See image #5 in the album for statistics.

Statistics for Day 90:
- Screenshot
- Distance travelled: 5675 Ly
- Number of jumps: 267
- 2 Earth-like Worlds (1 moon)
- 2 Ammonia Worlds
- 22 Water Worlds scanned (8 terraformable, 1 ringed)
- 1 terraformable HMC scanned
- 4 planetary nebulae

Final location in the galaxy:
System name: Oephaich GW-N e6-2069
Distance from Sol: 18,152.00 Ly
Distance from Sagittarius A*: 7,967.45 Ly
Distance from Beagle Point: 47,185.34 Ly
Galaxy map screenshot:

Spoiler

Imgur album:
[imgur]OKlEc[/imgur]

 

[Cmdr Frawd Digger]

Yay! Love ELW moons!

Rep

Frawd

 

[Draco25240]

Log #91, 2nd August 3302

I think my ship is agreeing with me that it's time to go home now, it sounds like every last one of my modules are about to explode...

Quick summary of Day 91:
- Found a system where, according to the system map, the outermost planet was orbiting further in than the 2nd innermost planet... Huh...
- First time in my 7+ months of exploration that I've seen an HMC so similar looking to an Earth-like that I actually had to go scan it to figure out whether it was an ELW or HMC. After closer inspection, it turned out that it was indeed an HMC, but with an Earth-like composition, Earth-like atmosphere, Earth-like gravity, Earth-like green terrain and oceans, but had a 223 K surface temperature, wasn't terraformable either...

Statistics for Day 91:
- Screenshot
- Distance travelled: 4563 Ly
- Number of jumps: 224
- 2 Earth-like Worlds
- 0 Ammonia Worlds
- 14 Water Worlds scanned (11 terraformable)
- 3 terraformable HMCs scanned
- 3 Neutron Stars

Final location in the galaxy:
System name: Iowhail BA-A g109
Distance from Sol: 15,822.10 Ly
Distance from Sagittarius A*: 10,315.29 Ly
Distance from Beagle Point: 49,543.87 Ly
Galaxy map screenshot:

Spoiler

Imgur album:
[imgur]NLdwH[/imgur]

 

[Draco25240]

Log #92, 3rd August 3302

Quick summary of Day 92:
- Visited a system known to have a ringed Earth-like being the sole planet orbiting a Neutron Star. Took a couple of screenshots. Apart from that there wasn't much more than jumping going on all day, nothing noteworthy.

Statistics for Day 92:
- Screenshot
- Distance travelled: 3707 Ly
- Number of jumps: 182
- 2 Earth-like Worlds (1 ringed)
- 2 Ammonia Worlds
- 13 Water Worlds scanned (6 terraformable)
- 1 terraformable HMCs scanned
- 2 Neutron Stars

Final location in the galaxy:
System name: Graea Hypue YE-A g2
Distance from Sol: 13,432.40 Ly
Distance from Sagittarius A*: 12,559.58 Ly
Distance from Beagle Point: 51,881.27 Ly
Galaxy map screenshot:

Spoiler

Screenshot of the day (click for 6400x3600)


Imgur album:
[imgur]wgm8x[/imgur]

 

[Draco25240]

Log #93, 4th August 3302 - Detouring to Jaques Station

With the news that Jaques has gotten a few facilities online at his station, I decided to go off my planned route and head over to his/its station, fit a cargo rack, and have a friend of mine drop a few tons of supplies so I can participate in the Repair Jaques Station CG. At the pace that the CG is going, I'd never be able to participate in time if I went through civilization first. Won't be doing any repairs though, to preserve the condition that my ship is in, but I might exchange my C2 fuel tank for a shield generator while I'm there, just to give some extra protection for my final approach to the bubble, although the thought of flying on half the tank I'm used to is a bit scary...

Quick summary of Day 93:
- Jump, scoop, check system map, jump, scoop, check system map, jump...
- First time I've ever come across a gas giant that had another gas giant as a moon in my nearly 15,000 jumps long journey. Coincidentally, I found another one literally 5 jumps later.
- Found a lava planet orbiting a cool L-type brown dwarf star. The planet had a semi-major axis of 0.00 AU, or 2 Ls from closer inspection.

Statistics for Day 93:
- Screenshot
- Distance travelled: 6075 Ly
- Number of jumps: 294
- 1 Earth-like Worlds
- 1 Ammonia Worlds (1 ringed)
- 14 Water Worlds scanned (6 terraformable, 1 ringed+moon)
- 0 terraformable HMCs scanned

Final location in the galaxy:
System name: Eoch Flyi WT-A e4803
Distance from Sol: 17,923.98 Ly
Distance from Sagittarius A*: 10,670.99 Ly
Distance from Beagle Point: 48,547.17 Ly
Galaxy map screenshot:

Spoiler

Screenshot of the day (click for 6400x3600)


Imgur album:
[imgur]373KT[/imgur]

 

[Draco25240]

Sorry for the long delay, got caught up in something and didn't get around to posting the log...

Log #94, 5th August 3302 - Jaques Station

Well, after this I've got some stuff to do, so I most likely won't be able to play the entire next week (8th to 14th). By the time I'll be back, cartographics might be online at Jaques Station, so perhaps I'll sell the main bulk of my data there while I have the opportunity, just in case something were to happen on my final approach to civilization... Might hang around the general area for a little bit depending on how things go though, we'll see...

Quick summary of Day 94:
- Did the 15,000th jump of the trip.
- Arrived at Jaques Station after a long day of almost full buckyball running to reach Jaques Station in time for the CG.
- Did my first docking in 7 months and 9 days, it was an... intense/scary experience, docking with so much data on me in an unshielded ship.
- Made a small contribution (1 ton) to the Repair Jaques Station CG with the help of CMDR Maximilian Reach and CMDR Bob Damnit, thanks a lot guys!

Statistics for Day 94:
- Screenshot
- Distance travelled: 4838 Ly
- Number of jumps: 234
- 2 Earth-like Worlds
- 5 Ammonia Worlds (3 ringed)
- 13 Water Worlds scanned (7 terraformable, 1 ringed+moon)
- 1 terraformable HMCs scanned

Final location in the galaxy:
System name: Eol Prou RS-T d3-94, docked at Jaques Station
Distance from Sol: 22,000.47 Ly
Distance from Sagittarius A*: 11,367.20 Ly
Distance from Beagle Point: 46,241.11 Ly
Galaxy map screenshot:

Spoiler

Screenshots of the day (click for 1600x900), couldn't decide again




Imgur album:
[imgur]X2cew[/imgur]

 

[Cmdr Frawd Digger]

Well done Cmdr...cartographics is now on at Jaques so you should be able to sell!

I know the feeling of piloting an unshielded ship full of data into a station for the first time in a long time! (I did some practice runs in training)

Glad you made it safely.

I will be out at Jaques in a couple of weeks...maybe we can have a meet-up somewhere in between or at Jaques. But don't look for my sidey...will be in my orca

Frawd

 

[Draco25240]

Sorry for not posting anything in a while, but for safety reasons, I've been withholding the last few logs; didn't want to risk any CMDRs using them to hunt me down during the final sprint or during the Iridium Wing escort (which had to be done in Open), I'm not exactly flying the most heavily armoured ship in the game...
Big news though, I docked at Chilton Terminal in 21 Draco about 10 hours ago, so I'm now safely back in civilization Now that I'm safely docked though, and the final data logs have been sold to Farseer and Martuuk, I will now start posting the last few logs for the trip in the following days...

 

[iain666]

Gratz on making it back safely.

 

[Jermus]

Congratulations on making it back safe!

:O Iridium Wing escorts are in open?! ... That must have been ... scary ... tense ... (They do still have a perfect record, though...)

 

[Syrion1984]

Congratulations on making it back to civilization, CMDR!
I have read your full journey at work today and it's very fitting that today you made it back!
Awesome stories and pictures, Draco! Have some very well deserved rep!

 

[Draco25240]

Gratz on making it back safely.

Thanks! Good to finally be back here in civilization, and catch up to stuff I've been missing out on (new missions, everything Horizons related except gathering materials, etc), so much to do

Congratulations on making it back safe!
:O Iridium Wing escorts are in open?! ... That must have been ... scary ... tense ... (They do still have a perfect record, though...)

Thanks Jermus! In about 15 years it will be your turn to reach civilization as well
And yeah, felt like it was a bit risky in Open, although I approached civilization from the side with the least inhabited systems between me and home, and with the player activity in that area being pretty much non-existent. Still though, they do have a perfect record, and the way they do the escorts does make you feel pretty safe

Congratulations on making it back to civilization, CMDR!
I have read your full journey at work today and it's very fitting that today you made it back!
Awesome stories and pictures, Draco! Have some very well deserved rep!

Thank you CMDR! o7 Glad to see you enjoyed the stories and screenshots, and thanks for the rep And it was very fitting indeed, haha. Noticed I was just a few days from my 9 month "anniversary" when I got close to civilization, so I slowed the pace a little and made it home on the 27th, exactly 9 months after leaving civilization
Will be making an album of my favourite screenshots to post on Reddit when I find the time to go through the screenshots folder, although that could take quite a while, contains like 6000 screenshots by now...



Also, Log #95 - 99 are basically finished now, just need to pick out the screenshots for the log albums, then they should be up. Log #100 will come a bit later (haven't started on it yet, and will do a summary of data sales, objects scanned, favourite systems, etc, either on it, or on a post after that)

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -

Also, one more thing to add. I've gotten a little article submitted in the system news in the 21 Draco system

_________________________

Local pilot completes galactic crossing in an Imperial Eagle

After 9 months of travel and nearly 325,000 Ly covered, CMDR Draco25240 has returned to civilization again after crossing the galaxy onboard his Imperial Eagle, the PFS Asylum Express. Departing from Chilton Terminal at the end of 3301, he set out into deep space to see how far he could push his ship, visiting several tourist destinations during his voyage, including Sagittarius A* and Beagle Point. Now, 9 months later, he was spotted entering inhabited space again, heading in the direction of his home system of 21 Draco.
Reporters, spaceship specialists and psychiatrists from the local mental health service arrived on scene shortly after touch-down at Chilton Terminal, but were unable to get a comment, as the now Elite-ranked pilot had already left port, looking for new adventures. After a quick inspection, his now retired Imperial Eagle was declared a biohazard, and has been quarantined indefinitely.

- The 21 Draco Journal

_________________________

 

[Syrion1984]

Log #100 will come a bit later (haven't started on it yet, and will do a summary of data sales, objects scanned, favourite systems, etc, either on it, or on a post after that)

In real OCD style, I hadn't expected differently

 

[[VR] optimal_909]

Yay, great news! o7 CMDR!

 

[Draco25240]

Sorry for the extremely long wait, I've just been so caught up in doing stuff in civilization (and IRL, in addition to being a procrastinator) that I forgot about posting the last few logs... There's so much to do considering I haven't been in civilization since a week after Horizons launch, it's kinda overwhelming I'll try to dedicate these next few days for finishing off the logs though... No guarantees though, I'm a huge procrastinator

Log #95, 6th - 27th August 3302 - A little break + selling exploration data

Well, after docking at Jaques Station on 5th August, I decided to spend some time here to take a little break (for IRL and in-game reasons) and do something else for a change, like mining, helping out at whatever CGs I can, talking to people, etc, was nice to have a little temporary home-away-from-home.
Now that I had the opportunity though, I eventually decided that it'd be a good idea to sell my exploration data while I had the opportunity, just in case something were to happen on the final sprint home. After about 10 hours of selling, I ended up with a profit of 235.8 mill, so I'd say this trip has paid quite well There did however show up an exploration CG at Jaques a mere 3-4 days after I sold my data though, that was a bit... annoying, losing out on an extra 115 mill for the top prize.

Quick summary of "Day" 95:
- Sold my exploration data, details below.
- Spent a few days mining Osmium at the nearby metallic ring for one of the community goals at Jaques Station. Perhaps unsurprisingly, I did the mining in an Eagle MkII (hey, after spending so long in an Imp. Eagle, I need to make a slow transition to other ships )
- Flew a bit around Jaques' nebula, tagging a couple of objects and a B-type star.
- Had a short meetup with CMDR Frawd Digger outside Jaques Station, this time with him flying his shiny new purple Orca.

Statistics for exploration data sale:
Profit: 235,775,975 credits (1.5x Elite), avg. ~15,550 credits per system
Total pages: 304 (~15,161 systems)
Time to sell: ~10 hours
Top 3 highest paying systems:
- Sagittarius A*: 631,850 credits
- Dryao Broae HR-T d4-582: 450,230 credits (Ultimate Hot Jupiter system)
- Speamoea WU-E d12-543: 434,627 credits (4x ELW system)

Minor travel statistics for the break at Jaques' nebula
- Distance travelled: 459 Ly
- Number of jumps: 44

Screenshots of the day (click for 1600x900 and 6400x3600)






Imgur album:
[imgur]QIFG6[/imgur]
(If the album embedding doesn't work, just click the imgur text in the top left corner of the square, or go to http://imgur.com/a/QIFG6 )

 

[Cmdr Frawd Digger]

Congrats on making it back to the bubble and making elite...sorry I didnt respond earlier...I pretty-much took September off with regards to ED.

Frawd

 

[Draco25240]

Congrats on making it back to the bubble and making elite...sorry I didnt respond earlier...I pretty-much took September off with regards to ED.

Frawd

Thank you! And hahaha, yeah I can understand you wanting a break... You're even more insane than I am!

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -

Due to sickness, this log was spread over 4 days due to the fact that I didn't manage to play much before having to stop because my eyes got too tired...

Log #96, 28th-29th August + 2nd-3rd September 3302 - Retirement of PFS Asylum Express

After thinking long and hard about it, I have decided that I'm going to retire PFS Asylum Express here at Jaques Station. The data it gathered is sold, so its mission is basically complete, in addition to the fact that it feels like it just belongs out here in deep space. After spending the last 8 months roaming the galaxy, I feel the best for it would be to retire it here, in the same condition as it docked at, at Jaques' roaming starport in the Colonia Nebula, with all the gorgeous scenery in the immediate area to accompany it. Jaques, please take good care of her.

Quick summary of Day 96:
- Officially retired PFS Asylum Express at Jaques Station on the 28th of August 3301; 8 months and 1 day after it departed from civilization, with its final flight occuring the day before to get my name on a nearby B-type star.
- To be able to get home, I bought and outfitted an Eagle MkII at Jaques Station, loaded it up with 1 ton of Jaques Quinentian Still, and set off towards civilization. Due to the fact that Jaques' outfitting options are, quite frankly, terrible, I'm now flying home with a 13.24 Ly jump range, and with only a basic discovery scanner and a 3E fuel scoop onboard. If I can cross the galaxy and reach Beagle Point with a 21.85 Ly Imp. Eagle, I'm sure I can do the final 22,000 Ly with a 13.24 Ly Eagle MkII; should be a good final challenge. To help what remains of my severily fragmented sanity, I've brought along a little co-pilot bobblehead...
- Jumped into a F-G-K contact trinary on the 30th jump.
- Found yet another record-breaker planetary ring (this one by chance, it was 4000 Ls outside my scanner range, but was easily spotted when turning the ship around), this one actually orbiting a gas giant. The ring have an outer radius of a whopping 22,901,576 km, with ring 3 itself being 22,333,545 km wide, large enough to be visible from beyond 10,000 Ls away. Due to the fact that I'm not carrying a detailed surface scanner, I can't see the mass of it, but it's probably in the order of a couple of hundred trillion megatons massive, maybe even more.


Statistics for Day 96:
- Stats when leaving Jaques
- Stats at the end of the day
- Distance travelled: 5719 Ly
- Number of jumps: 460
- 0 Earth-like Worlds
- 4 Ammonia Worlds (1 ringed)
- 16 Water Worlds scanned
- ? Metal-Rich planets scanned (didn't note them, but scanned a bunch)
- 1 Gas Giant with a 22.9 million km ring.

Final location in the galaxy:
System name: Blua Eaec JX-T e3-178
Distance from Sol: 16,705.61 Ly
Distance from Sagittarius A*: 13,042.89 Ly
Distance from Beagle Point: 50,580.27 Ly
Galaxy map screenshot:

Spoiler

Screenshot of the day (click for 6400x3600)


Imgur album:
[imgur]FHPco[/imgur]
(If the album embedding doesn't work, go to http://imgur.com/a/FHPco )
Also, since the album refuses to update the image rearrangement, picture #11 is supposed to be #1, and #12 is supposed to be after the system map photo