Newcomer / Intro where do go on a 5,000 light year trip

I'm a good 200 hours into this game and still loving it. I have been working on unlocking engineers the past couple weeks. I have discovered Professor Palin and I want to unlock him for the grade 5 thrusters so I need to get 5,000 light years away. Is there anything worth seeing around 5,000 light years away? Right now i'm not really looking forward to it, 10,000 mile round trip seems a little boring but if I saw something cool it might be worth it. Any other suggestions to add to the trip? I guess I could try to find some passenger missions to some place far away to make it worth my time. I have an ASP explorer with a jump range of 47 ly and a Python with a 30LY jump range. I'm planning on taking the ASP explorer unless there would be a reason to load up the python with a bunch of passenger cabins to make some cash some how. Any suggestion or tips would be appreciated. On a side not how do if find out where exactly my starting system was?
 
What Alex said - it also might be a good idea checking passenger missions for some interesting sites more than 5k out if you are thinking about taking passengers anyway. As for the starting system question, i'm not sure if it's actually possible, but you can see your 'distance traveled from starting system'-statistic in the statistics panel (right panel).
 
Hi, if you do the sums, taking the Python would mean an absolute minimum of 334 jumps there and back, probably quite a few more. Whereas the Asp minimum is 214 jumps. So the difference could well be 150-200 jumps. That's a lot of extra time and effort, although it means more chances to scan. Passengers will be paying multi millions at that kind of distance for touring/exploring etc. If you loaded up the Python with cabins it sounds fine in theory but you will probably be lucky to find many wanting to go in the same sort of direction in the same time frame. And even if you did they are usually a fussy, demanding bunch so you could end up running around all over the place just to keep them happy and with ED luck you never know when disaster will strike. Look what happened to British Airways!

I would want to get back to Prof. Palin asap so my choice would be the Asp, making sure Advanced and Surface Scanners are fitted as you could pick up several million worth of scans on the way there and back. Then check on https://eddb.io/ and if you can take 1 or 2 passengers without too much fuss on the way then all well and good. Once you have completed their itinerary they'll let you know where to return to in case you forget. Have a good trip! Btw don't forget to filter the Galaxy Map for KGB FOAM stars only so your fuel scoop should always work. Don't be another Fuel Rats customer, let them take a break, they deserve it!
 
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Thanks for the tip, defiantly sounds like the ASPX is the way to go, I do have an advance scanner and surface scanner so I should be able to make some cash at least. Now a strange question since I really haven't left the bubble yet. In the bubble I always find a station to park my ship before I log off because I wasn't sure if I logged off and left my ship floating in space if it could still get blown up by pirates. Can this happen? If so when you are out of the bubble is it safer to just land on a planet somewhere before logging off?

Also should a take a field maintenance repair kit?
 
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"I wasn't sure if I logged off and left my ship floating in space if it could still get blown up by pirates."

In a word, no. When you log off your ship is removed from the instance you are in and the servers remember where you were more or less. I'm not sure how this is explained in the lore but no doubt there are several versions! I guess my version would be akin to hibernation, your ship is in shut down mode except for life support so emissions are almost non existent, meaning your are almost "invisible" to other ships. There's no reason you can't land if you want peace of mind. As I understand it, even if you stopped in space in the path of an orbiting planet or moon when logging off, (the universe is still moving in real time) the server would simply move you on a bit when you log back in. Someone correct me if that's wrong. Yes an AFM unit is definitely worth it at that distance.

Now just why in the ED 34th Century tech hasn't perfected cloaking devices is a very good but separate question, after all, the Star Trek universe would have had them for over a thousand years by then haha! Sorry to go off topic but the new TV series ST-Discovery (set around 10 years before ST-TOS) coming this year will be a must see if you've watched any ST before.
 
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Thanks Conde, I'm glad I don't have to worry about my ship getting blown up when I log off. I will defiantly at the AFM just in case. Right now I'm thinking of just heading to the Jellyfish or Rosette Nebula. They seem to be about the right distance.
 
I'm a good 200 hours into this game and still loving it. I have been working on unlocking engineers the past couple weeks. I have discovered Professor Palin and I want to unlock him for the grade 5 thrusters so I need to get 5,000 light years away. Is there anything worth seeing around 5,000 light years away? Right now i'm not really looking forward to it, 10,000 mile round trip seems a little boring but if I saw something cool it might be worth it. Any other suggestions to add to the trip? I guess I could try to find some passenger missions to some place far away to make it worth my time. I have an ASP explorer with a jump range of 47 ly and a Python with a 30LY jump range. I'm planning on taking the ASP explorer unless there would be a reason to load up the python with a bunch of passenger cabins to make some cash some how. Any suggestion or tips would be appreciated. On a side not how do if find out where exactly my starting system was?

Personally I just went in a straight line away from the bubble until I got a message that Palin was unlocked - and then dived into the local star....bye bye 8M rebuy - hello Palin.....
 
The way I did it, not that I'm suggesting this is the perfect solution, but it worked for me, was create two bookmarks a certain distance apart to act as a compass point so that I could always travel in the same direction. Plot 1000 LY in that direction. Get there. Line them up. Plot another 1000LY.

It stops the whole "accidentally going backwards" problem. In the end I went 5040 LY, which is enough to trigger Palin without going mental from jumphonkscoop'ing.

If you didn't know, go to this site and follow their simple guide and you're guaranteed to always have a scoopable star.
https://confluence.fuelrats.com/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=1507609

Good luck Commander.
 
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Personally I just went in a straight line away from the bubble until I got a message that Palin was unlocked - and then dived into the local star....bye bye 8M rebuy - hello Palin.....

Do that if you like but the planetary scans can up to many millions with the new payouts so you will be binning a load of cash by doing this. Also this is a bit gamey, I.e. within the mechanics of the game but not really how it is intended to be played. Your choice though, I returned from Colonia in pretty much the same way.
 
I quite regularly go on 500-600ly jumpsz and thought I was clocking up loads of distance..

Nope. Total of 608ly from starter.

I'll tackle a big run at the weekend.

If I suicide my ship for the return. do I lose any scan data?
 
I'm a good 200 hours into this game and still loving it. I have been working on unlocking engineers the past couple weeks. I have discovered Professor Palin and I want to unlock him for the grade 5 thrusters so I need to get 5,000 light years away. Is there anything worth seeing around 5,000 light years away? Right now i'm not really looking forward to it, 10,000 mile round trip seems a little boring but if I saw something cool it might be worth it. Any other suggestions to add to the trip? I guess I could try to find some passenger missions to some place far away to make it worth my time. I have an ASP explorer with a jump range of 47 ly and a Python with a 30LY jump range. I'm planning on taking the ASP explorer unless there would be a reason to load up the python with a bunch of passenger cabins to make some cash some how. Any suggestion or tips would be appreciated. On a side not how do if find out where exactly my starting system was?

The 5000 LY Palin trip is easy, you can finish it out in a couple, three or four of days after work or school. Don't bother with a passenger mission, passengers are pushy and annoying, you are doing this for you. Fit your Asp-X with the Advanced Discovery Scanner and the Detailed Surface Scanner. You won't need an AFMS unless you tend to crash a lot. Leave the SRV, cargo racks, passenger cabins, all that mass at home to maximize your jump range.

Then jump. Pick a direction, I went toward the core. Nothing really to see for 5000 LY in any direction except nebulae and they are mostly in the wrong directions but this is about the journey, not destinations. Remember that you need to go at least 5000 LY away from your point of in-game origin to complete the task so you might want to go more like 6000 LY just to be sure of the distance and not in a circle but in a (relatively) straight line away from the bubble. The instructions do not say go 5000 LY, they say go 5000 LY away.

Don't suicide, the trip is not that long.

Credits will be earned on the exploration data, lots of them. To plagiarize some exploration instructions I read a while back: "HONK da systems, SCAN da blue ones". As you travel, HONK every system. After HONK-ing and scooping fuel, check the system map and look for "blue" (water) worlds or other interesting bodies and if found, fly toward them so the Detailed Surface Scanner can scan them before moving on to the next system. A lot of credits can be earned passively this way. A lot! I earned over 4 million for a single planet! Don't waste time exploring, though. Stay on mission. This trip is about LY and getting them behind you so you can go visit the Professor. o7

EDIT: A side note on goal-oriented thinking (i.e.: destinations): Elite Dangerous is a very process-oriented game and while you will need to set goals for yourself in order to progress in the game, do not get too hung up on things like destinations and goals or the game may, almost surely will become frustrating. Enjoy the ride.
 
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Thanks for all the tips everyone. Initially I was just wanting to get it done as quick as possible to unlock the engineer. Never though about blowing myself up once I got there but that would cut the trip in half. But the more I think about it, I think I'm going to just take my time and make an exploration trip out of it. I haven't done any real exploring yet so I figured I might as well use this trip to give it a try. I mostly plan in scanning the "blue ones" as JetsonRing suggested so it doesn't take forever. I figured if I don't enjoy it at all and start to get really board I can always skip the surface scans on the way back. At least I can earn some exploration rank and some money from the trip. If I blow myself up all the exploration money is lost.
 
First star on the right and straight on til morning.

Pick a direction, any direction. Choose a destination star system, tag it with a bookmark and make your way there. There's lots to see and there's no bad choices for where to go.

Be prepared to navigate by spiderweb once out 2,500 or so LY from the core. The 1,000 LY route plot does not always work once you hit the more barren areas of space.
 
First star on the right and straight on til morning.

Pick a direction, any direction. Choose a destination star system, tag it with a bookmark and make your way there. There's lots to see and there's no bad choices for where to go.

Be prepared to navigate by spiderweb once out 2,500 or so LY from the core. The 1,000 LY route plot does not always work once you hit the more barren areas of space.

I've never gone more that 400 LY or so, but your saying there is a maximum distance I can plot? I won't be able to just pick my spot 5,000 yrs out and plot the entire route?
 
The max plot distance is 1000ly. You have to plot it in chunks.
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There is a lot to be said for heading out towards nothing. Routes towards something have generally been travelled before so you will get fewer first discoveries, which get your name on a system and a 50% payout bonus.
 
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The max plot distance is 1000ly. You have to plot it in chunks.
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There is a lot to be said for heading out towards nothing. Routes towards something have generally been travelled before so you will get fewer first discoveries, which get your name on a system and a 50% payout bonus.

I didn't know about the 50% payout bonus. That could really add up to some decent cash.
 
The quickest method takes about 3 hours. get a Cobra mk3, strip everything off it, downgrade the PP and PD to 2D, make all the other modiles D-class, except 4A FSD. Add a class 4A fuel scoop, a class 2 fuel tank and one or two heatsink launchers. That should give a jump range of about 28 LY, so 5000/27 = 185 jumps. It takes about 50 to 60 secs per jump. As soon as you get the message that Palin's unlocked, self-destruct. Your rebuy will be 239K.

Alternatively, fit out an Asp for exploring, visit Felicity Farseer to get the FSD to grade 5 increased range, then fly out 10K LY to the neutron star fields, scan 2000 neutron stars and come back with 130 million in astronomical data and Elite explorer rank.
 
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