Outer Rim Stations Tour photo journal 9: Flaming Star to NGC 1333
29 Jul 2018Thunktone
3304 July 20, Friday12:35
I don't know how the Flaming Star Nebula got its name, there isn't even a star in there. Look at Barnard's Loop from this angle though, it kinda looks like a meteor.
There are the two distant blue structures too. I've been assuming they are the Magellanic Clouds but I finally got around to looking them up today. They are indeed the Magellanic Clouds, dwarf galaxies in the Local Group. The Large Magellanic Cloud is 160 kLy away and the Small Magellanic Cloud is 200 kLy away. Not that far really, I've been over 30 kLy from Orrere. Beagle Point is over 65 kLy. If they found a way to navigate through witchspace without locking on to stars then we could get out there and explore them.
12:50
Out for a spin on a snowball again. Flaming star is on the horizon but it's still Barnard's Loop that draws my eye.
13:43
A better view of the Flaming Star nebula.
3304 July 21, Saturday
16:30
Another sitting duck, another 20 grand bounty. Should this be legal?
3304 July 22, Sunday
12:08
I've been looking around the GalMap for unusual stars. This S class is on the way to becoming a carbon star.
13:00
And this carbon star is "done".
14:25
I stopped for dinner before the meetup and saw this familiar ship on another landing pad.
16:59
Gathering for the jump.
17:43
17:59
3304 July 23, Monday
07:04
I took a detour to see my first Wolf-Rayet star. Some tourists claiming to be famous explorers wanted to come here from a previous waypoint. I didn't want to be doubling back so I've come alone. Here is the view of its planetary nebula from the tourist beacon.
07:15
And some views of the star.
11:49
12:02
12:25
12:42
Ring mine is about as rugged to look at as it sounds, but the NGC 1333 reflection nebula didn't really live up to my expectations. Somehow I thought a vast cloud of diamond dust would be beautiful. I did find an ancient NASA image from infrared that I've included below.
