Holes as Black as...

I don't know what is blacker than a black hole actually, or even as black as a black hole. Because make no mistake, they are pretty damn black.

After a recent journey through a thick neutron belt, I dropped across this rather pleasant hole that was a bit bigger than all of the others I had seen. Apart from Sagittarius A* - that one was a bigger. I digress, as promised in my last entry, here are the tales of me getting very close to a black hole.

You can just see the black hole here, along with some rather stunning gravitational lensing

What surprised me most is just how much black holes 'talk' to you. Once I was close enough I found myself utterly mystified as to the noised and sounds I was hearing.

It is indescribable, hence the video I promised.

It's only 4m 30s but here are a few 'skip points' should you need to view the best bits.

1m 45s - First close pass to see the lensing (and check heat!)
2m 45s - Drop from supercruise to have a real close look. You can hear the hole chattering and howling
3m 20s - Nice cinematic bit with Drone-Cam
4m 10s - Mind blowing gravity effects when supercruising out.

Honestly, I am fascinated by black holes now. I am making it my quest to journey from one to the next as I make my way to the base of the Sagittarius arm.

Last quick photo of me leaving the hole showing our mistress gravity in all her glory.

This is me saying goodbye to the dense field of neutron stars which so frequently threatened to pull me out of supercruise, ready to scorch my hull as a penalty for my inattention. Browsing the galaxy map for my next interesting find and I drop across this unusual beauty of a nebula nearly a thousand ly away - course laid in!

I travelled most of the way doing the bare minimum of stops in order to scoop fuel and check the maps. The stars I passed were left untouched as my curiosity pulled me closed to my destination.

Such a small nebula, I felt lucky to have even found it, as it clings onto a single neutron star. This image was made only just over 3ly from the anomaly, I'm going in, next entry will be posted when I am out the other side.

Rikk, signing out

3000 Systems Visited!

Today I planned a nice long 1000Ly leg out the other side of the core

Then I realised I was approaching the 3000 system mark, so decided to have a quick look around to see if there was anything interesting to mark the occasion. I didn't do this at the previous couple of thousand as these were normal fayre for most explorers on the core run.

I found this nice little place with an A class blue supergiant, and as it turns out a B class and M class in a tight binary orbit and very close to the A.

You can barely see the M here, just look at the slight orange glow below the small B class (I was about 400ls from the supergiant here)

Or here is one where I closed in.

And yes, you know what happened next. Even though I didn't need to I popped in and scooped from that little M class! I'm starting to make a habit of this.

Leaving the stars I had a quick look back, by the gods my Clipper is showing the marks of a long journey.

I will write about it more in my next blog, but I have also been getting up close and personal with some black holes. As well as using the camera drones for stills, I have been shooting video.

Here is a sneak preview of what I have been up to.

I'm getting fascinated by staring into the black. Maybe I've been out here too long!

Rikk, signing off.

Herbig Ae/Be

In my travels I have now dropped across most star types, the only one that had eluded me was the Herbig Ae/Be.

Until yesterday, that is.

I dropped upon it entirely by surprise when I was on one of my short travel hops and I was absolutely floored by it's eerie beauty.

Here it doesn't look vastly different to any other star out there, slightly more mottled. But in a picture you don't get the sense of rotation. This crazy little star is spinning fast, really fast.

I recorded some footage showing just how fast.

It was really quite mesmerising.

But one must press on, and currently I am navigating the galaxy using Carbon or O class stars as waypoints. These are uncommon and often spaces quite a distance apart, so I pick one roughly en route to the Sagittarius arm and set a course.

I found this, and thought it would make a rather pretty photograph.

On departing from this system I set course for a promising landmark, another Herbig Ae/Be but this time joined by a pair of O class stars. I was quite apprehensive about the jump in, so decided to set the camera rolling as I entered hyperspace.

Turns out I had nothing to worry about. If you want to skip the jump in then 1:30 is the place to go, system map is at 00:35

I'm still exploring the neutron belt, heading slowly out to the Sagittarius arm. 27.3k Ly from Sol and increasing.

Rikk, signing out.

Fitting My Clipper Out

I'm taking a night off tonight, just chilling out in the lounge in the glow of a white giant star, and decided there is no better time than now to discuss fitting the mighty Imperial Clipper for a journey into deep space.

The first thing to make sure of is she looks stunning. If you must paint her, ensure it is a colour that will accent her already sublime curves. I know, it's lonely out here.

Now onto the important question, and one which will ultimately dictate how she will fly. Will she be a pure explorer, or will you take equipment befitting of an Imperial Baron. By this I mean armed and shielded.

My view on this was simple. If I can carry weapons, I will. If I can carry shields, I will. If I can carry defenses, I will. So while I may not be heavily armed, shielded or defended, I am confident with my speed and fitting I can outlast any encounter with known forces.

I have learned a few things since setting out, and these things have already proved that my current ship configuration needs some work. I fitted a 6D powerplant, where a 5A would have been a better choice. Power output is similar to the 6D but it runs cooler.

I am running a full rack of point defence, on reflection a couple of heat sinks would have been a better choice.

And finally I should probably have left enough for at least 16t cargo. Not because I want to carry stuff, but because the computer is somewhat stupid and does not allow me to select a lower optimal jump range for navigation.

White also really show the dirt up after a while. I may consider a paintjob before I head out again.

So once I have ventured back to civilisation, traded in my data and buffed out the scratches, how will I fit her for the next expedition?

[Imperial Clipper]
L: 3E/G Pulse Laser
L: 3E/G Pulse Laser
M: 2F/G Pulse Laser
M: 2F/G Pulse Laser
U: 0I Heat Sink Launcher
U: 0I Heat Sink Launcher

BH: 1I Lightweight Alloy
RB: 5A Power Plant
TM: 6D Thrusters
FH: 5A Frame Shift Drive
EC: 5D Life Support
PC: 6D Power Distributor
SS: 5D Sensors
FS: 4C Fuel Tank (Capacity: 16)

7: 7C Fuel Scoop
6: 6D Shield Generator
4: 4E Cargo Rack (Capacity: 16)
4: 4A Auto Field-Maintenance Unit
3: 3A Auto Field-Maintenance Unit
3: 3A Auto Field-Maintenance Unit
2: 1C Detailed Surface Scanner
2: 1C Advanced Discovery Scanner
---
Cargo : 16 T
Fuel : 16 T
Range : 22.81 LY unladen

I know many explorers will scoff at this fitting, but it feels comfortable to me.

She is a joy to fly, everywhere.

Rikk, signing out.

Carbon Stars / Fuel Mishap

I am now picking my way slowly through a vast expanse of non sequence stars. I am seeing so many black holes and neutron stars on this leg of the journey that they are no longer as new and fresh as they used to be.

I have, however, gained a significantly increased respect for those neutron stars, I have lost three percent of my hull to them in the past seventy two hours alone! Each time it has been not due to landing in system too close, but accelerating prematurely before turning away. So commanders, get at least sixty degrees of turn in before hitting the throttle!

The real treat for me in this cluster is the much higher than average occurrence of S class Carbon stars. Those big beauties that are near end of life M class stars. Having never seen one before and certainly not dropped across one on my current journey the first was special.

The second was surprising, and special in it's own way. The reason for this was not so much the fact it was only 50Ly away from the first, but that I got myself in a bit of a pickle rushing over to see it. Rather than take my time and plan my route carefully I saw it was three jumps, and that there was also an M class star I could scoop from in system.

So I bounced over there. When I saw where that M class star was my first reaction was to open the galaxy map and see what else was nearby. Well done Commander Rikk, there were no nearby scoopable stars I could reach.

I had to scoop from this.

Yes, that is an M class star in the corona of a much bigger S class carbon.

Well I did it, and it was possible one of the most exciting things I have done this journey. So much so that after getting my first couple of tonnes, I kept going back in for a little more until I was fun. Some would say that was foolhardy... I wear the cowboy boots on this ship though :)

So I survived, and took no extra damage. After a few scans of planetary objects I had another look at the map and found yet another star showing as carbon - so off I went. This one has a nice ringed rock about 1000ls from the star which looked thoroughly pleasant.

Finally, taken from carbon star number 6 in this cluster, a quick shot out the cabin window. I'm still a good distance south of the galactic plane, as you can see from these shots!

My journey has slowed down significantly in this cluster as it is certainly the galactic melting pot I expected it to be. As I head upwards and towards the start of the Perseus arm I am preparing for the long loop back around to head home. Still a long way to go yet.

Rikk, signing out.

Spot the Sun

Today is a quick entry.

I am current tracking back up to the galactic plane, and heading towards what appears to be a dense cluster of neutron stars and black holes. I'm sure I will find some already discovered but the field is dense so I am hoping for some new finds here.

While I was plotting my route I noticed a particularly large star so took a small detour to take a look. Dropping out some 370ls from the main star, I did not expect to see a second star in a fairly close orbit to the first.

It is actually quite hard to spot head on (I'm pointing straight at it...)

So I moved around the edge somewhat in order to show this second star. As a comparison, this companion star is slightly smaller than Sol. Although based on where it currently lives I would imagine significantly hotter!

I have reached the edge of the non-sequence cluster so the next couple of posts will chart my journey through this field. It is only a minor diversion from my planned track but already feels very much like the forces of creation and destruction are hard at work here.

The primary gravitational object here is a black hole. I now know when I get back her stable mate will be getting a much darker paint job...

Cheeky last minute update. I have just set course for a carbon star, it will be the first I have ever seen!

Rikk, Signing out.

Earth Like Worlds? I'll take two!

My voyage downwards has reached it's end. The mighty Clipper is a beauty to command while I travel these far reaches, but there gets a point where I simply cannot jump the distances required to go any further out.

But my heart is far from heavy, I am thrilled to have picked my way some 2600ly downwards from Sag A*. The view I am greeted with this far away from the galactic plane is breathtaking, with other galaxies and the Magellanic Clouds clearly visible through my canopy.

The star systems through which I wove my route were all very much alike holding a high percentage of K & M type stars orbited by gas giants. So imagine my surprise when a system scan revealed a secondary star with what appeared to be an Earth like world orbiting. Despite being some 500k ls from the primary I pointed my bow towards it and throttled up.

My reward was what I had hoped for.

A stunning earth like world, although somewhat smaller than the home of our ancestors at 0.24 earth masses. Naturally I took a whole bunch of photos before scanning the rest of the orbital bodies, and it was on one of these scans I was glad for my safety harness as I would have fallen out of my chair!

It looked like any other metal rich world, it turned out to be another earth like! This one at 0.95 earth masses and slightly warmer. I could see some big tropical storms around the equator and the polar caps were minimal. Had I been equipped for landing this is where I would have stopped!

There may be other terrestrial worlds further out from the galactic plane, but I can still proudly say I have discovered one on the fringes. It is very peaceful out here, and it was with a slightly heavy heart that I decided to head back away from the fringe.

My journey now takes me further across the galaxy where I hope to pick up the start of the Perseus arm at the core, and track that back around before skipping across to the Orion spur. This is a fair journey and I know there is a chance I will get distracted on the way.

In fact I have already, as I am now en-route to a cluster of neutron stars and black holes that do not appear to be widely charted as yet. Only a few systems from my pair of terrestrial planets, I dropped across another.

Sunrise was rather impressive today.

Rikk, signing off.