Visiting BD+66 1066

What's special about the BD+66 1066 system? Well, it's the closest star system to the Cat's Eye Nebula, and it's a bit challenging to reach. (Well, at least with a ship. You could always cheat with a fleet carrier, but where's the challenge in that?) Could be worth a visit if you want an exploration challenge.

On the way there there's a beautiful ringed water world, here depicted against the galactic background:

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Once in BD+66 1066, the nebula itself is a bit small because the system is not extremely close to it, but it's clearly visible:

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There's also a black hole in the system, so what better than to use it as a magnifying glass for the nebula:

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I was excited to see you share this system since it has become one of my favorites since I first found out about it towards the end of last year. Once I saw it was reachable I immediately started jumping to it all the way from the core.

Even though this system appears empty at first glance, my only reason to visit this system was due to the unique appearance of the nebula in galaxy map. I got kind of let down when I initially spotted it in the system since I was hoping for the nebula to appear larger than it did.....but only until I started flying to the BH almost 100k ls out would that feeling change for the better.

Having to travel that far was not a concern but it was quite spooky since the BH was hidden within the darkness of the void the entire time. However, looking the other direction and being greeted with such an incredible view of the entire galaxy beneath me made me actually almost overshoot the BH 😁.

I finally managed to align the nebula as perfectly centered behind the BH as I could and then slowly began my approach to drop out at the exclusion zone. Seconds before I was about to collide with the EZ, I was greeted with the unique light blue color filling my entire canopy and then the bits of green and purple started to form throughout. Even after doing this numerous times in the past I was blown away by the colors and intensity this tiny hidden nebula was displaying to me.

I compiled my favorite screens in a album to hopefully encourage more explorers to visit this hidden gem of a system.

o7
 
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