Well well, what a time it's been!
You folks already know I've been on a trip, thanks to threads like this, this, this and this.
Being a kinda spontaneous person, six months ago I figured "There's no time like the present", and fitted my Asp Explorer Starchild for what would turn out to be a very special long range trip. I had an inkling of the way that the trip might eventually turn out, but I didn't think I'd actually manage it...
Originally, it wasn't my 100% intention to go to Beagle Point, in fact I set out in the opposite direction towards the Formidine Rift. I just wanted to see what was out on the Rim. Get a feel for the ship, see how she handled with her new fit.
I threw in two AFMUs - so they could repair each other - and the biggest fuel scoop I could carry, with a maximum scoop rate of 752t/s. Enough to fill the tank in as much time as it took to fly round the star and aim at the next destination.
And three weeks later, heading back to the bubble I decided I'd rather come to enjoy my solitude and I decided to go the whole hog; My course changed towards Colonia.
Thanks to neutron star boosting (which wasn't a thing last time I was out towards the core), the trip was a lot faster, but it was still one heck of a slog, and I didn't get to Jacques until five weeks after I left the bubble.
By the time I got there I'd pretty much convinced myself to go the rest of the way. If I'd known how long it was going to take, I'd probably have had second thoughts.
But hey, a right of passage is a right of passage, right? And we saw some awesome things.
I even made a second trip to Sagittarius A*.
Eventually I hit The Abyss, an area so devoid of stars that even my nav computer of awesomeness couldn't find a way around it. Thanks to ED's rather amazing community though, I found a decent route here (many thanks, CMDR MerangoIV) that helped me cross that particular obstacle.
A short time later I was about as far as far could go, 300 jumps to go, 200 jumps to go, 100 jumps to go, 75, 50, 40, 30, 25, 20, 19... You know how it goes.
And that was it - I was there. The landing gear touched the ground, the engines shut down and I thought "I'm here!"
I had been working on a video for a while, documenting my travels. I figured that if I was going to celebrate a triumphant return, I'd better have a triumphant return. So after a few days off to get over my jump-burnout, I jumped back into the game and set off back towards civilisation.
Jumps came and went by the hundreds, at one point I was so eager to be back I covered sixteen thousand light years in one day. Though thanks to neutron stars, that wasn't as difficult as I'd feared.
I arrived back at Colonia eventually and paid a visit to a very special visitor...
And then set off for the final slog back home. This time, the paucity of neutron stars made this leg excruciatingly slow. Nevertheless, I watched the jumps remaining counter diminish and diminish until eventually, I reached home. After six months away.
Would I do it again? Probably. But not for the forseeable future!
Though my time out in the black did bring some major dividends, not the least of which was a handy payout from all my exploration data. How much of a payout? Well, let's just say that I'm in the big boy's club now...
After six months of flying an Asp, it's like learning to fly all over again...
But something even more awesome came of those six months, which I've been looking forward to sharing for pretty much the entire journey.
As I said, I figured I wanted to make a little video record of my trip. I probably started getting carried away a little, but hey I got really into it.
The idea behind the video is partly to explain why explorers love being out in the black, but it's mostly to pay tribute to my beautiful, beautiful ship, Starchild. She didn't put a foot wrong, not once in six months did she ever let me down. We went everywhere together, and we saw everything together.
So to her, I dedicate this video (available in glorious 60fps)
[video=youtube;rspTyp0GmgU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rspTyp0GmgU[/video]
And to all my fellow explorers who haven't yet made the trip... Go on, do it. It'll give you one hell of a feather in your cap.
You folks already know I've been on a trip, thanks to threads like this, this, this and this.
Being a kinda spontaneous person, six months ago I figured "There's no time like the present", and fitted my Asp Explorer Starchild for what would turn out to be a very special long range trip. I had an inkling of the way that the trip might eventually turn out, but I didn't think I'd actually manage it...
Originally, it wasn't my 100% intention to go to Beagle Point, in fact I set out in the opposite direction towards the Formidine Rift. I just wanted to see what was out on the Rim. Get a feel for the ship, see how she handled with her new fit.
I threw in two AFMUs - so they could repair each other - and the biggest fuel scoop I could carry, with a maximum scoop rate of 752t/s. Enough to fill the tank in as much time as it took to fly round the star and aim at the next destination.
And three weeks later, heading back to the bubble I decided I'd rather come to enjoy my solitude and I decided to go the whole hog; My course changed towards Colonia.
Thanks to neutron star boosting (which wasn't a thing last time I was out towards the core), the trip was a lot faster, but it was still one heck of a slog, and I didn't get to Jacques until five weeks after I left the bubble.
By the time I got there I'd pretty much convinced myself to go the rest of the way. If I'd known how long it was going to take, I'd probably have had second thoughts.
But hey, a right of passage is a right of passage, right? And we saw some awesome things.
I even made a second trip to Sagittarius A*.
Eventually I hit The Abyss, an area so devoid of stars that even my nav computer of awesomeness couldn't find a way around it. Thanks to ED's rather amazing community though, I found a decent route here (many thanks, CMDR MerangoIV) that helped me cross that particular obstacle.
A short time later I was about as far as far could go, 300 jumps to go, 200 jumps to go, 100 jumps to go, 75, 50, 40, 30, 25, 20, 19... You know how it goes.
And that was it - I was there. The landing gear touched the ground, the engines shut down and I thought "I'm here!"
I had been working on a video for a while, documenting my travels. I figured that if I was going to celebrate a triumphant return, I'd better have a triumphant return. So after a few days off to get over my jump-burnout, I jumped back into the game and set off back towards civilisation.
Jumps came and went by the hundreds, at one point I was so eager to be back I covered sixteen thousand light years in one day. Though thanks to neutron stars, that wasn't as difficult as I'd feared.
I arrived back at Colonia eventually and paid a visit to a very special visitor...
And then set off for the final slog back home. This time, the paucity of neutron stars made this leg excruciatingly slow. Nevertheless, I watched the jumps remaining counter diminish and diminish until eventually, I reached home. After six months away.
Would I do it again? Probably. But not for the forseeable future!
Though my time out in the black did bring some major dividends, not the least of which was a handy payout from all my exploration data. How much of a payout? Well, let's just say that I'm in the big boy's club now...
After six months of flying an Asp, it's like learning to fly all over again...
But something even more awesome came of those six months, which I've been looking forward to sharing for pretty much the entire journey.
As I said, I figured I wanted to make a little video record of my trip. I probably started getting carried away a little, but hey I got really into it.
The idea behind the video is partly to explain why explorers love being out in the black, but it's mostly to pay tribute to my beautiful, beautiful ship, Starchild. She didn't put a foot wrong, not once in six months did she ever let me down. We went everywhere together, and we saw everything together.
So to her, I dedicate this video (available in glorious 60fps)
[video=youtube;rspTyp0GmgU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rspTyp0GmgU[/video]
And to all my fellow explorers who haven't yet made the trip... Go on, do it. It'll give you one hell of a feather in your cap
.
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