Eskimo Nebula Trip Day 3
26 Sep 2020FiveStringJeff
Cigars and caviar to send a lazy hedonist prince into the afterlife? What a waste. I'm happy to be a few hundred ly away from that nonsense. The community goals from last week were a nice boost, both to morale and the bank account, but I've got no desire to risk my life to trade rare goods for some Imperial clown who couldn't stop partying long enough to do something useful with the title he had been born into. Besides, there's something about the beauty of the galaxy that draws me outside the Bubble and away from... that.I wake up 4 jumps away from my destination: the Eskimo Nebula. I'm on moon 4B of this system, which, when I landed, had given me a wonderful view of a gas giant less than 5 ls away. The moon has rotated so that the planet is now behind me. I lift off and aim in the direction of my next jump, catching a quick view of the ringed planet as I leave.
My whole trip, I've been trying to actually look for this nebula. The Horsehead Nebula is huge and was a marker in the sky for me on my last trip, but this nebula seems to be much smaller. I don't actually see it until I'm one jump away. It's got a familiar pink/purple hue to it, but even at about 50 ly, it's hardly bigger than the other stars I see.
Jumping in, I stop and revel in the beauty of the O class star in front of me. These stars burn fast and hot, so they're not as common. I'm enjoying the view.
A quick glance at the GCRV 4981 system map shows both a fleet carrier and a... tourist beacon? Isaiah's Hope. I drop out of supercruise to scan it, and realize that I'm not the only pilot who found beauty in these sorts of systems. O7, CDMR Isaiah.
I've only been in one other system with a black hole - Maia. That was one system I didn't want to stick around in. So I set off to get a good look at the black hole 73,000 ls away from this blue beauty. On the way, the pink nebula clouds form a serene backdrop to the system. If there were a landable planet here, I might make this my home system.
How close can one get to a black hole? I approach cautiously. As I get closer, the pinks and purples of the nebula turn a foreboding red. I drop into normal space at about 5 ls. There's not much there but some teal-colored clouds. I pop back into supercruise and slowly get closer. At about 3 ls, I can see it - the smallest black dot in the center of this cloud. I'm both mystified and frightened. This is the most destructive object in the known universe, and it doesn't care why I'm here.
As I get closer, I can see the light from nearby stars track across the surface of the black hole. The star itself is getting bigger, but it's not black now - it's refracting light around the event horizon, and looks alternately teal and pink. If I'm not looking directly at it, the black hole disappears from sight altogether. I drop out of supercruise again, this time at 1 Megameter. I don't dare get closer. The black hole is a small multicolored dot.
I take the pictures I came for and aim back towards the O class star. It's just a blue dot in the sky, but it feels much safer. Now, to plot a route home to sell a little bit of data.