Finally touching down on the once-familiar Teller Ring and having access once again to all my other ships felt great...

...What felt better was cashing in well over 200 Million Credits in data, and that's after deducting a 12% crew share (Big mistake bringing Stefanie along, definitely wasn't worth paying her something like 40 Million Cr). With this cash out My net worth rose about 50% from 440M Cr to almost 700M Cr!

This trip was by far the longest I've done. It set a number of records for me personally, bringing my hyperspace odometer over 200k, reaching a maximum distance from Sol of over 33kLy, scanning and discovering for the first time, thousands of new systems. In total, the trip measured just under 89,000 Lightyears, and took about a month and a half of total game days, spread out over 3 chunks over the last 8 months.

And with that payout came my promotion to Elite in exploration. The first Elite rank I've achieved in game, and thus, my ticket into the Shinrarta Dezhra system.

It was a hell of an adventure and it's good to be back. I gotta make the next couple weeks count though because Distant Worlds II is just around the corner, and I can hardly allow myself to miss that. For now though, I'm home, and I'm happy.

CMDR Astrovenator out. O7

The entire photo album for this journey, including all 135 screenshots can be found here, and a short video made with Elite Astrometrics can be found here

Finally re-entering Human Space, nearly eight months after leaving it (About a month and a half of days played), I made my first stop in Maia, at Palin Research Centre to sell some of my data to Professor Palin in an attempt to curry some favour. From there it was a mere handful of jumps back to my Home system of LFT 90.

Full Album from this Journey Here

A brief stop at one of the better outfitted asteroid bases outside human space. From here you can see Barnard's Loop quite clearly and the stars are much thicker than they were back in the rift and beyond. This station, remarkably, has ship module outfitting services, and as such strikes me as possible a good place to set up a semi-permanent residence outside the bubble.

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The region of space just this side of the Formidine Rift, home to the IC 1805 Cluster, as well as various stellar and planetary PoIs. In the 2MASS J02351897+6131236 system, referred to by EDSM as "Fireflies" on account of it's many stars, is an incredible system in the region, home to 1 O-Class star, 3 black holes, and 14 K- and M-class stars, around which orbit well over a dozen landable worlds. Nearly all of these worlds have biological activity in the form of what are colloquially known as "Space Pumpkins", and most of the worlds have some kind of geological activity, mostly Iron magma if I recall. A fascinating system, worth a visit for sure if you're anywhere near the IC 1805 cluster. Of course there is much else to be seen in this small region. The Melis geysers, the Sleguae terrestrials, various water and ammonia worlds, and more. If an explorer wanted to get their feet wet with an expedition to the Formidine Rift, these places should all be taken into consideration.

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A typical, deep-blue, double-lobed planetary nebula located within the IC 1805 cluster. Home to a black hole, this nebula is quite vibrant and easily visible due to low light. While I was visiting the nebula, The Sagan Class Tourist ship TEL-121 was orbiting the black hole, but the jump plan for the vessel implies that it spends it's time hopping around various nearby systems observing the nebula. This nebula is perhaps best viewed from the nearest star, where it takes up a significant portion of the sky and makes for some incredible vistas. In this system there is a tourist beacon on the surface of a planet where you can get some fantastic views of the Nebula.

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Finally drawing near to the close-side of the Formidine Rift, these Nebulae are fairly common emission/reflection type clouds, home to many star systems, 2 of which contain wayward asteroid bases. The Soul Nebula specifically contains a station named Base Camp, where I made my first stop in a starport in something like 60,000Ly. Be advised, this starport is over 100kLs from it's parent star. I took the time to restock and repair for the last legs of the journey, and then briefly enjoyed the sights of the nebulae before setting out towards the IC 1805 Cluster.

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Related closely to the Zurara and the mystery surrounding it's failure and abandonment, these settlements in various systems within a small part of the Eafots sector, shed some light on the mission with various audio logs. The settlements themselves don't have much in the way of things to see, but still serve as interesting surface locations and build upon what is possibly the biggest mystery in this region of space.

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After commanders spent something like 3 years chasing clues and cracking codes, finally the mysteries of the Formidine Rift started to unfold a degree. While the region still remains the subject of much murmuring and legend, we're one step closer to understanding it's secrets following the discovery of The Zurara in 3303. This ship is one of the major clues to the mystery of the Dynasty Expedition, a strange and secretive project that was being undertaken some thirty years ago by forces and organizations unknown. The objective of the mission is not entirely known, but audio logs on-board the ship as well as some similar logs found at abandoned settlements elsewhere in the rift, reveal some details about the mystery. Talk of strange sights in witch-space, mysterious illness, crew-members losing their sanity, placing beacons along the way, and actions taken to keep everything quite. The Unique vessel is certainly a source of curiosity.

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This system contains a planet orbiting within just a few light-seconds of it's parent star, a scorched, barren world with some pretty impressive views of it's parent star. The other star in this pair orbits quite quickly. If you tab out to do something else for ten minutes and come back, you'll see that this star has drifted a few degrees across the sky. Aside from this close-proximity planet, there is little else of interest in this system, but once again, it serves as a nice mile-marker on the journey back from the galactic outer rim.

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Not too distant from the Spongou Nebula, almost exactly 20kLy from Sol, this system contains a fascinating planetary pair, where a small rocky moon orbits a large, ringed gas giant just outside the reach of it's outermost rings. From the surface of the moon, the rings of the giant sprawl out across the sky like a vast highway of dust and debris. It's a thoroughly impressive vista, worth checking out if you happen to be in the region. Potential explorer's should be warned though that due to the close proximity of the bodies and the way that Elite handles relative motion of planets, it is possible to have the game think you're in the ring's frame of reference even when the moon is so close that orbital cruise engages. Your speed can read normal (200-300m/s) despite the moon rushing past you at thousands of kilometres per second. I was careful not to test what would happen if the moon and I came in contact during this situation, so for all I know it might be totally safe, but it was clear to me anyways that the behaviour of the system was not following the expected rules and I didn't want to risk the mission to test it.

Full Album from this Journey Here