Through the Eye of the Loop
19 Jul 2017Robert Phillips
Now it was time to push through Barnard's Loop and out the other side to the Horsehead Nebula:
Navigation around this region of space is especially difficult, as many of the sectors are permit locked. None of the systems in the Horsehead Dark Region nor Col 70 Sector are accessible, but there are one or 2 systems through the centre that are accessible.
The nav computer finds it difficult to plot a route here. It will plot a route around permit locked systems, but if the detour becomes too great, it gives up. Navigation required a fair bit of trial and error, and some creative paths around the permit locked systems.
In a nutshell, I found a route through the centre of Barnard's Loop, and a couple of systems on the other side, by following this path:
- Trapezium Sector UD-B C8
- Orion Dark Region RD-T C3-0
- Orion Dark Region TY-S C3-6
- HD 37397
- Messier 78 Sector QD-T C3-3
This afforded me the following spectacular views of the Horsehead Nebula:
The effort involved really was worth it.