Newcomer / Intro What is this?

[Lykos Ultor]

Hello all,
My first post here.
I've had this cluster of stars on my horizon for a good while now and I'm just wondering why they're showing up so bright? Is it because they're behind a nebula (NGC 7822)? They've been getting bigger and brighter.

 

[Codger]

Time for a drink, boys!

NGC 7822

The NGC 7822 nebula has a collection of stars arranged in a rough cylinder facing Sol. The red glow of the nebula meets the blue glow of a class O star. NGC 7822 is well above the galactic ecliptic. It is about 2,790 light years from Sol. Life Sciences Expedition has an asteroid base in NGC 7822...

elite-dangerous.fandom.com

 

[metatheurgist]

Been a while since the last one, getting thirsty.

 

[Lykos Ultor]

So what's the in-joke?

 

[Factabulous]

They are joking because this question comes up a lot - you could try typing 'NGC 7288' into the search bar and look at how often

 

[HRDiagram]

So what's the in-joke?

It's a rite of passage, if you will.

We all notice NGC 7822 at some point in our exploration career and wonder what it is: it's all part of the experience!

 

[Lykos Ultor]

I'll refill my Hutton Mug then Thanks for the info chaps. I have seen some strange 'formations' (walls and boxes, guessing its a data thing) of stars from time to time in the Galactic Map, I figured it must be something similar but my curiosity kept flaring up every time it popped up.

 

[Sapyx]

NGC 7822 is a hand-coded area of space (that is, it's not procedurally generated, but placed there when the game was written). It contains a cluster of Type O stars, which don't normally procedurally generate. These big bright Type O stars are visible from a very great distance, a couple thousand light-years. The cluster of them inside the NGC 7822 nebula become very visible, to anyone who ventures out of the bubble in the general direction of NGC 7822 ("west" on the galactic map). The stars become visible long before the nebula itself, which often leads new explorers to wonder "what's that strange bright blob?". Those wonderers often end up here on the forum, where they ask the question. It happens so often that the forum regulars started a "drinking game" about it, because the answer to the question "what's that strange bright blob I can see" is almost always "NGC 7822".

 

[the100thmonkey]

I'm reminded of the line of 2MASS stars pointing straight at Sol.

Either the Thargoids are far more technically capable than we thought (i.e. a Kardashev II+ civilisation), God is playing tricks on us, or there's a measurement bias leading to an apparent pattern in the data. I leave it to you to find unicorns.

 

[Fixitman]

That's also known as Cupid's Arrow, according to a tourist beacon I found there a couple months ago. That nebula is what got my third commander started on his current near-bubble nebula tour.

 

[Lykos Ultor]

Thanks for the additional info, really interesting!