Part 2 of the recap takes us to the gates of the Rosette Nebula in the Monoceros (Unicorn) constellation. It has an open star cluster inside, which lies in the middle of the Nebula (in reality) and goes by the name NGC 2244.

The book of the leg is rather short...

Short stopover

I wanted to add up some Arsenic. So I searched for it on volcanic active planets/moons along the way and took the first opportunity I met. An ice moon with only 1.6% Arsenic, and water ice volcanism. Went down and got greeted by the most active ice geysers I have seen so far.

...and it goes on to the further left:

Normally you would say: Arsenic... the material you wouldn't find if you (desperately) need it. But I got a solid 12 units out of it. Was satisfied when I left that spot :) Should I say that I found that combination (volcanism + Arsenic) in almost every system afterwards...?

On approach

And then, I already was on approach to the Rosette Nebula and its cluster. Both are depicted in E:D, with the cluster lying outside the Nebula instead of at its center...

Today, let's go to the Seagull Nebula...

The last four expedition days meant for me especially one thing: Jump, jump, jump, As fast as you can. Yep, the trip between 3 Geminorum and the Crab Pulsar was the longest trek between 2 WPs of the whole expedition. I made it in 2 days... Now I stand at the gates to the Rosette Nebula (time to cash in my actual data, there's a station in the WP system!), and then I'll move on towards the Seagull Nebula, where the famous Hell Port is our next WP.

Most WPs will be close to each other now, with little long legs between them...

Along the way...

... it was a rather sparse region I had to cross between NGC 1893 and the Crab. Almost all systems along the way have been fully explored before. And as I entered the Gongae sector, I thought about something... and yes, I took the (actual very little!) detour to the Glowing Green Giant in that area. It was the 11th (of actual 27) GGG found in the galaxy. Here it is, Gongae QW-L c24-0 2

Crab Nebula

I pushed forward quickly, and then I found myself at the Crab Pulsar, the star which supernova was spectated from Earth in 1054. The nebula lies in the Taurus constellation and only visible via Telescope.

The second part of the recap comes in a few minutes...

Greetings from NGC 1893! Yesterday I reached the cluster in the Auriga constellation. It features an emission nebula, IC 410, in real life. It is an HII region, which means it is a starburst area at about 11 klys away from Sol. Around 15-20 massive blue stars are depicted in the galaxy, one of them being WP 15 of the CEA2 tour, NGC 1893 CF 43. I missed it on the travel towards 3 Geminorum (RL had me in its claws last Monday, where the Taxi Carrier stood in that system) and the cluster was "on the way", so an opportunity to make use of...

Yesterday's travel was not as exciting as the day before. But I ran across several Water Worlds again (up to 3 in the same system!) and 1-2 Ammonia Worlds were also in the mix. And as fast as I could see, I was on approach to the cluster...

The last few 100 lys were Jumponium only. To add, most of the systems I went by were uncharted, which made it even more difficult. A nice happening were these terraformable Water twins, which were found in one of the few already discovered systems. The system had 3 Water Worlds in total:

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But I successfully made it and this is what greeted me when I entered NGC 1893 itself:

Today I'll take a short look around these B stars, and then start my way out to the Crab Pulsar. Hope to be there by Wednesday!

Just standing there... Somewhere in the middle between 3 Geminorum and NGC 1893, trying to plot routes towards NGC 1893. I studied the map, and I have to take back my rant on the route plotter: I need Jumponium for the direct way into NGC 1893 from my direction...

Yesterday's travel

stood under the sign of the Terrestrials in the Milky Way. Water and Ammonia worlds (some already visited and mapped, some not) crossed my path, and even an Earth-Like World (my Number 7 on this tour - the most lucky number on Earth :)) could be found, sadly it was already discovered. Doesn't break the love! And here it is, my first Earth-like in the Kepler's Crest region, planet A5 in the system Spliech MT-Z d13-2. A nice system, but I'll come to that later...

The first speciality: Both stars are x0 Vz stars, therefore very young. The second speciality: The first discoverer only scanned the A star and the ELW. What he didn't discover in that system, is seen in the 2 pics below:

Yes, this system also features a Water and an Ammonia World each (and 2 more terraformables)! One of each kind! This is only my second system of this kind so far. Kind of a rarity!

Today? This nice and rich region will be further crossed, and I hope to reach NGC 1893 today...

The previous days flew by like nothing and... yeah, my room on the Carrier was my home for that days. Therefore I missed a waypoint (WP 14 - NGC 1893 CF 43 - to which I'm heading to right now on my way to the Crab Pulsar) and came back into my cockpit just yesterday, near...

3 Geminorum

... this blue supergiant in the Gemini constellation. It lies towards the south-eastern edge of the galaxy, in the region Kepler's Crest. It is around 14kly away from Sol. In its system, some Gas Giants (mostly Helium-rich) with moons are found. Some of them, metal-rich ones, feature Bio signals, being those biolumnescent Roseum anemones:

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After a short stop, I started my trip towards the Crab Nebula - with a short detour to aforementioned NGC 1893 CF 43. And I have to say: Don't rely on the route plotter in sparse areas! It couldn't plot a route from a B star in the Splierd sector directly to NGC 1893 - although the Clipper has sufficient range and there are enough stars to jump to. So I needed to set an unnecessary extra waypoint, which I'm now heading to...

The climb to IC 2149 is done and I successfully reached the Nebula. Was not as bad as I thought! My route will be published in a few minutes...

The trip up...

...was quite eventful in case of "Terrestrials"! I happened to stuble upon many (undiscovered) Water Worlds, and this time, even 2 Earth Like Worlds (both undiscovered!) crossed my path, one of them even being in a binary with a (terraformable) water world! This one is shown in the Screenshot below, and is found in the system Myeadai OS-R d5-0. You can see the Water World in the background...

I better show the second one as well. It is found in Myeade KI-S d4-3. I came in from "behind":

IC 2149

The planetary nebula surrounds a massive O star (97 Solar masses) and its Herbig companion (46 Solar masses) in the system BD+46 1067. Such a system is always a pleasant sight and a reasonable place for a waypoint on the CEA2.

I found one of our Carriers being in the system, so I turned in my data (especially the ELWs!) and docked for the night. While taking the nap, it was announced that the Carrier travelled to (and just arrived) at Waypoint 14 in the NGC 1491 nebula. In the time, we changed regions again - the nebula sits in the infamous Formidine Rift...

I also plan to hitch this hike towards the next 2 waypoints...

Yesterday's path went down quickly, as, again, not really much happened. But at least some WWs and AWs came into my database. And also, I reached the next waypoint, NGC 1931.

Along the way...

This is the star which supernova created the Jellyfish Nebula. This Neutron is called CXOU J061705.3+222127 and has some quite massive companions as planets, even some M stars are in that lineup. And a nice FSD boost to start yesterday's trip.

The aforementioned WWs and AWs came in in a pretty abundant rate, at least in the first 30 of my 57 jumps. Everyone got mapped, while I entered 1. mostly uncharted territory and 2. a new Galactic region in the form of Elysian Shore. And, as always, some stars standing pretty close to each other...

This terraformable HMC in the Sector Myeade shows how 2020 Mars would look like with thicker atmosphere, higher mass and rings...

NGC 1931

At about 11 pm (my time), I finally reached NGC 1931, a nice emission nebula in the Auriga constellation. And with it, the waypoint of this tour, NGC 1931 Sector PD-S b4-0. I took the opportunity and landed on a close Iceworld. And... yeah, it's right in the Nebula, as the good old Bark Mounds greeted me upon landing. A nice place for a night camp.

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The next part

The trip to WP 13, IC 2149, is shorter (1.5kly), but way harder than the previous ones. The planetary nebula lies at about +1320, and with a max 48.7ly Clipper that means in this region: Jumponium time! The last 500 ly are "Injections and boosts only"... I'll post the route in the Route section if I make it...

Yesterday I reached the next waypoint. It is the Jellyfish Nebula, also known as IC 443. This means we hit a distance of about 5kly from Earth and surpassed a total travel distance of about 10kly just between the waypoints. And we entered the constellation of Gemini again, which we already travelled through (Geminga).

On the way

Absolutely nothing special happened this time. Almost only M and lower-class dwarf systems with only few terraformables and some water worlds. The Jellyfish Nebula closed in pretty quickly...

This following shot was a little accident. It still shows the camera menu, because I was about to enter witchspace and didn't want to stop...

At the waypoint system inside the nebula, I found one of our Carriers to hand the data in and then took a small detour to some surrounding B stars (Bark Mounds, Bark Mounds everywhere!). I had another giggle at a CMDR name in one system (CMDR "INeedsToPee") and this is what it looks like from a neighboring system...

Today, I'll head to the next waypoint, another nebula in the form of NGC 1931. let's see, what is there...

Yesterday was successful. That's what I put in first. I went past the next waypoint on the Expedition and am now heading for the Jellyfish Nebula. Along the way, some terrestrial planets popped up (no ELWs :(), all were mapped, some even first mapped by me. And again, some close standing suns greeted me...

But the distance went down rather quickly, and then, I arrived at...

Epsilon Orionis (aka. Alnilam)

The middle of Orion's belt stars. In reality, it is a Blue Super Giant with 31.8 solar masses at 26 solar radii. In E:D, the system presents itself as "normal" B star with 15.6 Solar masses at 5.68 radii. And it has a Black Hole and some planets as companions (about 3.3 solar masses).

Challenge time

When I saw planet AB2, I directly had the urge to land on it. A HMC with two Metallic rings could provide a nice view. When I saw its G-forces, I hesitated. 7.11 G!? And I never landed on a planet with 4 G or more before (personal record were 3.86 G)... I hesitated some more, but then I thought: "no risk, no fun", and started the approach...

To say the least: I thought it was harder than it finally was. I went down slowly and carefully and successfully landed without any problem. That means: Personal record! Now for the 9-10-11 G worlds out there... Two pictures from before and after the landing:

Departing from such planets is the part I should train a bit more... I needed 3 tries to get the ship back into orbit and continue a rather boring rest of the evening...

Once I boarded the Carrier, I decided to take a few days off. Good thing that there's a bar and a hotel onboard to stay for some days... Yesterday, we departed M 67 and started to continue our journey towards the Orion constellation. Next waypoints include Alnilam (the middle one of Orion's belt stars) and some more nebulae (Jellyfish, NGC 1933,...). The first batch of photos of leg 3 come here:

HD 65477

One of the real stars along the route, sitting in the constellation of Ursa Major and also known as Alkor. In game, it is depicted as a single F star (real: A class star with M class companion) sitting on the way to Barnard's Loop. It may build a multi-star system with the neighboring star Mizar (which is in the middle of the Bubble). It has 3 ringed HMCs orbiting each other - unfortunately not in close orbits. One of them is this one:

Along the way...

Nothing special happened. I took a neutron jump at HIP 35119, a system discovered by a fellow CMDR Icecold Spacebeer, mapped some ice rings for our fellow Carrier captains and got greeted by some hot suns along the way... Outotz IX-B d13-3 and Outotz EB-F d11-15

Night Camp with a twist (or better two) - Oochorrs UP-O b39-0

I set up my night camp in this somewhat unremarkable system. Unremarkable... until I got greeted by this:

This planet orbits its T star once every 288 minutes. 288 minutes! One "year" on this hell lasts almost 5 hours! Personal record for fastest orbit! The star in the background is star A. An ideal place for a nightstop. Turned around and I saw Barnard's loop. Looked in the Nav panel and got another surprise. The system sits right next to the locked Col 70 sector - another personal record for me (closest approach to a locked sector).