I departed Newholm Station in Sothis after some minor modifications to my ship including a new paint job.

It was 191Ly to Synuefai ZM-Z a68-1, an L class brown dwarf system where viride and luteolum Lagrange clouds had been reported.

I noticed that there was a K class giant nearby my destination and decided to plot a course to that first. It was 10 jumps there.

I encountered little of any interest on my journey.

I arrived at HR 1198. It was certainly a giant but didn't have anything of interest in the system so I moved on soon enough, eager to see the Lagrange clouds that were 25.2Ly away. I would be taking one stop by a class F star before there. Despite my usual practice of refueling at cooler M class dwarves I decided to refuel here as there would be nowhere to refuel in the Lagrange cloud system.

I soon found that there was no lagrange clouds here. I checked and found that the reported system in the codex was LBN 623 Sector ND-K a9-1. I have not found any evidence of this system existing, it's not on edsm and when put into the in game map it brings me here, to Synuefai ZM-Z a68-1. I don't know why this happens but it has. I used edsm to find many other instances of Lagrange clouds that I have already passed.

I checked edsm for any Lagrange clouds and got a collection of 8 lagrange clouds which I bookmarked to visit, they were all beyond the Taurus Dark Region on the way to the Hind Nebula. I also bookmarked Struve's Lost Nebula as I noticed it was in the region.

I decided to end it here for today but I can confirm the next few entries should be exciting.

I was soon approaching LBN 623. On my last jump inwards I was looking into the cone of the nebula. It reminded me of the fake wormhole from the Startrek Voyager episode "bliss".

I slightly rerouted to get to a system with a better view. I found a water world in this system then began a jump into the nebula.

This system was more on the edge rather than in the nebula. It provided amazing views though.

From here it was 143Ly to Wredguia SX-L d7-92 which is the reported location of a proto Lagrange cloud. It was only 8 jumps there and it was only a jump or so away from several inhabited systems that appeared to form a trail leading back to the bubble.

In the target system there was a class F star, two class Ms and a class T. There was also two ELWs and a water world. I detected two notable stellar phenomena.

I mapped both ELWs then began the over 100kLs journey to the two Lagrange clouds.

I got to the first one and scanned the metallic crystal things there. They were much larger than I had anticipated. They were purpureum metallic crystals to be precise.

In the second cloud I also found rubeum metallic crystals. There was also prasinum crystals reported here that I had to find. The crystals were absolutely titanic and rather intimidating in appearance.

I was unable to find any so I returned to the first cloud and found one immediately. It appears the first cloud had a mix of purpureum and prasinum and the second had purpureum and rubeum.

After this I locked onto the Sothis system. I would go there and dock after finishing this log entry.

This log entry covers two sessions.

In the first I didn't encounter anything too interesting apart from a water world and a few planets I landed on for some mat farming.

In the second session I encountered a red giant star then a red dwarf with a close orbiting class L.

With 18 jumps left I was confident I would make it there today unless some unforeseen incident or especially interesting system delayed me. Most systems ahead were class M dwarf or class K. There was one class G and a class F.

I entered a system with 4 hmcw, 1 ammonia world and two ammonia life gas giants. Since this was an interesting and valuable system I stopped to map the HMCWs and the ammonia world.

I encountered another water world, this one was the first planet in the system only 307Ls from its class K parent star.

Next up I found a system with a class G main star, a class K and 3 class M stars. The system was also full of HMCWs.

The very next system had two class F stars and a class M. It had several HMCWs and even a few metal rich bodies. It also contained two degraded emissions which I hadn't seen for a while, must be a result of getting closer to the bubble again.

From the next system it was 9 jumps to LBN 623.

In one system I was scooping and scanning. I noticed one of the icy bodies had 3 moons then while checking its size in the map I noticed that two icy moons of a gas giant had water geysers and one of the moons of the big icy planet had nitrogen magma, both of these were types of volcanism I had not investigated before so I investigated them. If I had not chosen to scoop here I would have missed this opportunity.

As I approached the moon I noticed many canyons on the surface and abruptly remembered what happened last time I investigated a geo signal on a gas giant's icy moon. The SRV incident. This time I appeared to be landing on flat ground and seemed to be out of harm's way. I discovered some water ice fumaroles and soon left due to a low amount of mats.

I explored some nitrogen ice geysers on the moon of the icy planet. I went into one of the smaller ones and noticed that it lifted me up. I then decided to repeat this with one of the larger ones. I got launched over 2km from the planets surface, briefly turning my SRV into a ship launched fighter. I got a bit worried when I continued to rise for several seconds, with the low Gs I was worried I had launched myself into space. Fortunately, I eventually came down, luckily taking barely a scratch, instead apparently converting all my downward momentum into forward momentum. One small problem soon emerged, I had no idea where I was or where my ship was. After looking around for a while I eventually remembered I can just recall my ship and got back in, unharmed and with some epic footage of my temporary conversion from SRV to SLF.

I originally planned to return to complete the 7 jumps to LBN 623 after getting some food but ended up postponing it until next time. Next time I will reach the nebula and go on past it to a proto Lagrange cloud and some inhabited systems.

I decided to get on for a second session today, several hours after arriving in the Iris Nebula.

I proceeded to a system within the nebula where I plotted my course to LBN 623 which was 991Ly away, 61 jumps. One of the furthest legs of my journey it would undoubtedly take me a while to get there. I noted that there was a carrier in HIP 1550 near the nebula. Shortly after the nebula there would be a system with a Lagrange cloud and there was several remote inhabited systems near there such as HIP 10792, Sothis and Ceos.

Without further ado, I departed for FT Cephei, my first system along this route.

In one system soon after entering Wredguia sector I found an icy body with a radius of over 20,000km and six icy bodies as moons.

I found a system with 3 gas giants with water based life, including two which were right beside each other. I used to think these things were rare.

With 46 jumps to go I finished up, made confident by the fact that within half an hour or so I had already covered 1/6th of the journey.

Started out with 35 jumps remaining. Since I had all of today to complete my journey I was confident I could get to FW Cephei.

Although I had passed by quite a few F stars so far looking ahead at my route there seemed to be plenty orange stars, probably mostly M class.

I had a new tactic that was speeding up my travel. When going into a system I would not decelerate and would instead D scan. I would only stop if it was a system other than a class M or if I needed to scoop fuel. I would also FSS scan if I was stopped for fuel as I wasn't going anywhere anyway.

I made an exception to this previous method if the system had a high body count as this usually indicates skme interesting gas giants which I scan just because they look cool.

I stopped for a brief surface excursion on a planet 5Ls from its star which was orbited by two other stars. The planet moved rapidly around the star.

Looking at the route ahead, I had 18 jumps left and every star was either M or K class except for one F star.

I had previously filled out this section of the logbook which including a trip to twin planets orbiting within several Ls of their star and several other interesting systems however it appears to have been erased by some kind of error. In short I docked in Iris Vacations, an asteroid base orbiting a HMCW in FW Cephei and sold over 5mil credits of data.

I decided to leave the nebula until tomorrow and after that I would go on to LBN 623.

Cmdr's Log, stardate 3/3/3309. I've recently been rewatching Startrek TNG and decided to spice up the beginning of today's log entry.

After I had visited some of the systems in the Pelican and North America Nebulae and visited HD 190021 (which was just two B stars) I decided to leave and be on my way.

It was 799Ly to FW Cephei, a populated sytem near the Iris Nebula. 47 jumps. I definitely wouldn't be getting anywhere near there with what limited time I had left this session but when I do I expect a massive cartographics payout due to the lack of a place to sell in the North America region and the large distance between here and there.

I encountered several systems composed of singular stars. This combined with the lack of hyperspace dethrottle allowed me to pass through these systems rapidly. The other systems I encountered had little worth scanning.

I ended the session with somewhere around 36-38 jumps remaining.

I plotted a course to the Pelican Nebula. 219Ly, only 12 jumps. I should have plenty of time to explore the nebulae and HD 190021 when I got there.

Apparently supercruise assist controls your dethrottle after a jump. I found this out the hard way when I nearly flew into a star after my first jump.

While taking some pictures near a Class Y star in one system I got a bit too close and entered the exclusion zone. I took some minor heat damage while escaping but made it out ok. My AFMU finally came in use.

I found my first two bio signals on a planet near the Pelican Nebula, bark mounds.

I reached the Pelican Nebula. It was more spectacular than the Veil West but the Veil West had nicer colours. I saw the North America Nebula as well and it looked quite nice too.

I figured out how to check for fleet carriers on the map and found that there was none near me (not until LBN 623) but there was one near Veil East that I missed because it wasn't on Edastro.

I decided to cut this session relatively short and leave the exploration of the nebulae until tomorrow.

This session picks up after the absolute trainwreck (or should I say SRV-wreck) that was occured last time.

Proceeding onwards, soon with 14 jumps remaining, continuing basic scanning. I hoped that I could get a new SRV at a fleet carrier somewhere in or near the Pelican or North America Nebulae. If I couldn't I was considering making an emergency detour back to the bubble to get one then resuming my journey. It would put a big voyage there and back but if I split the nebula tour in two and took a quick break in the bubble I might be able to go the extra distance to NGC 7822, or perhaps I woild leave that until my expedition to the heart and soul nebulae.

Upon checking Edastro I found the nearest fleet carrier with outfitting to be in the Sadr Region so I redirected me route back to there. 14 jumps from current location making it only slightly further than HD 190021 which was 12 at the time.

Luckily enough I encountered an ELW on my route back to Sadr and stopped to map it. It was the smallest and lightest I had encountered yet with a 4,100km radius and 0.275 earth masses. It was only just over 200Ls from it's star.

I reached Sadr again. I docked in the asteroid base for a full refuel and restock. I sold just over 7 million in cartographic data. I got promoted to the exploration rank of Ranger. Unfortunately Sadr Logistics Depot had no outfitting so I had to go to Sadr itself and dock in the "Procrastinator" owned by CMDR Drego13. o7 Cmdr.

Well, as it turns out the scarab is included in the restock so I didn't need to come out here. However while I was here I sold my supercruise assist since I don't use it anymore, I also tried to swap out my advanced docking computer for a basic one but there was none in stock. I left tbe carrier in case it took off and left this session here.

HD 190021 was 385Ly (22 jumps) in the North America Sector. Once I got there I would be a few short jumps from the Pelican Nebula. I hoped to get there in one or (more likely) two sessions.

While mapping a type II gas giant I decided to check out it's lone moon since it was quite close to the rings. I mapped it and found 44 geo signals. How 44 signals generated on a body with a radius of just over 1,400km I don't know but I decided to land and investigate. The planet had many cyan valleys filled with ice. I landed at a geo signal in one of these, finding a landing spot was hard because of the extremely steep and jagged terrain, filled with hills and dips. The extremely low gravity and steep terrain made travel difficult but I discovered some water ice fumaroles here, my first ice fumaroles.

From here I decided to go down a cliff, deeper into a flatter part of the valley. The moment I saw how steep and jagged the cliff was I knew I was in for trouble. Unfortunately I didn't realize how much trouble until I got stuck in a crevasse. I couldn't get out and I was stuck there for five minutes so I consulted the scrolls of knowledge: the elite forums. I discovered my ability to use vertical thrusters and used them to get unstuck after what felt like an eternity. From here I dropped into a valley that would lead me to canyon floor, unfortunately I got stuck here too, for what felt like an eternity. I felt like Aron Ralston, when he got trapped in that canyon and had to bite his own arm off. My hull integrity dropped below 50% and I started to get anxious believing that all my work so far would be futile, right when I thought I was home free after escaping from that first chasm. It felt like a Sisyphean task that was slowly draining my hull integrity and sanity; I would gain traction, move forward a bit, get stuck, slide right back down. It didn't look far when I zoomed out the camera but I almost felt sure this slippery blue crevasse would be my SRV's final resting place; the torment of Tantalus. After some 20 minutes of floundering in this icy hell pit my hull integrity was 21% and my chances of getting out intact were slim at best, however I got the "controlled falling" achievement by spending a collective total of 5 minutes airborne in my SRV. Just as I was out and rolling down the home straight towards the canyon floor (after some 40 minutes of being trapped) my SRV exploded, and I respawned in my ship, defeated.

I learned my lesson:f̶u̶c̶k̶ ̶t̶h̶o̶s̶e̶ ̶i̶c̶y̶ ̶c̶l̶i̶f̶f̶s̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶i̶r̶ ̶̶c̶r̶e̶v̶a̶s̶s̶e̶s̶ ,always check before you go over dodgy terrain.

This event and seriously slowed my progress, I still had 18 jumps to go. After this rather disheartening experience I mapped the ammonia world in this system and moved in to take some pictures just above it's rings. It looked quite beautiful and I got some nice images and a short clip of me cruising over the rings. I used to think these planets looked like a hellscape or perhaps one of those "class Y demon planets" from Startrek but now I knew that the real hell was that icy body and it's crevasses where the wreck of my rover now rests eternally: Veil East Sector YJ-A d25, the sole moon of planet 2. RIP.

Today continuing on towards the Veil East Nebula.

I found a lovely blue type I gas giant as the lone planet in a system, I decided not to visit because it was 14kLs out.

I found an icy body with a radius of 19,000km. That's almost twice the radius of the smallest type I gas giant (or as I call it, a gas dwarf) I encountered. It had a gravity of 2.20G so I decided not to land on it as it would take longer due to extra caution but I did go out to take a look at it since it was only 41Ls out (there was 3 other bodies closer, one of which was only 8Ls out)

I stopped for SRV excursions on two of the planets. 2 and 3 are very close together and provide some excellent views, especially with the lava spouts I encountered at geo signal 4 there. All in all I would recommend anyone going between Sadr and Veil East stop here for a break, Prooe Drye ZM-P B11-0.

I was now only 8 jumps away too.

As I got closer it started to look quite nice, enough to justify the journey. It didn't quite exceed Veil West but it did look better than Sadr. While this area certainly didn't lack views, it did lack fleet carriers, which is rather unfortunate.

Next time I will plot a route to HR 190021.