I had arrived at Sol yesterday for the first time, with a mostly default Cobra. I found the direction of Sol (un-plottable), then just found something in-between as others have mentioned. I stopped by Alpha Centauri, and to my surprise, discovered that it's a Binary Star System... Hadn't leart that preior.
From there, it's an easy jump o Sol.
By realizing how much I was spending on fuel costs, I decided to pick up a scoop. I found it's quite easy to do, and since you're pointed at a star each time you Shift to a new system, it only takes seconds out of the transit.
I had leart how quite easily, and found skimming an orange star can fill fuel reserves to full by watching heat/fill-rate, and pitching over the circumference at about .75c / 35/s fill-rate, the temp won't exceed 100%. Easy-
I don't know my fuel-scoop model, but I paid in the 25k range for it.
I'm glad I planned for fuel-scooping prior to my trip.