A fiery finale!
25 Sep 2017LongDistanceClara
(Two posts in as many days, sorry for the spam but had more time today than I thought! Should really be doing something more productive though, but where's the fun!...)Starting to feel the tug of deep space again; it's been great being back in the bubble - I really think I enjoy it a whole lot more if I come back periodically from my random scuttling around the Milky Way! But it's coming to a close and I'm hankering to get back out there.
Not just yet of course - tomorrow's kind of an important day (I mean today - dammit it's way too late!). So I had one last hurrah, a quick tour of some old haunts and some new.
Fired up the Cass and headed out - first stop; Betelgeuse. I love this big beastie, not least because it's not blindingly bright so you get to see some detail without melting your corneas!
This very helpful coronal mass ejection seemed to be a bit of an "Old Faithful" - I managed to grab this pic on its second time of erupting. "Great!" I thought, "I'll shimmy down to the surface, hop in an SRV and get a ground shot and a tan to boot!".
(I'm starting to anthropomorphize the Cass far too much, I keep thinking here (and in other shots), it looks like a big dopey dog waiting patiently while I go off doing silly stuff!)
Anyhow - Betelgeuse was not so accommodating! I trundled out to a likely ridge, got comfy, set up the shot and waited...and waited...and you can see where this is going
Apparently Betelgeuse had decided it liked its corona where it was, thank you very much and wasn't going to oblige.Cue waiting for what felt like hours (but in reality wasn't - well, probably). Then as with all things, I was just about to pack it in and BOOM - I saw the beginnings of the eruption. Frantic clicking ensued and finally got the shot:
I think by this point a tan would be an understatement - rumbled back to the Cassandra fairly well grilled, took one last look at this gorgeous star and dusted off. Next stop - Hyadum! This was a new one for me, but I'd heard great things; apparently there was a ringed gas giant in close proximity to the star and the views were spectacular.
Finally dropped into system, swung the Cass in a big lazy arc around the dark side of the giant, dropped out of supercruise after some slightly nerve-racking moments skimming the rings in the shadow of the planet and oh glory
I can't get enough of this stuff.
I spent a good while "dolphin-ing" (new verb TM) through the dust and rocks of the upper ring before deciding to head off again. Next stop - Skardee.
Skardee and I have a love hate relationship. I've had a lot of fun here, but I've melted a lot of hulls here too! The nearest landable planet is terrifyingly close to the coronasphere - as in, so close it's touch and go whether you'll drop out of supercruise. The readout urgently flashes heat warnings, cockpit lights go off left right and center - good times all round
If you do make it out of orbital cruise without frying alive, you're rewarded with some amazing views though. It genuinely feels like there's just a wall of light along the horizon blasting over you:
I swung the Cass around to run a parallel course so I wasn't getting blinded (cough and tweaked the gamma down a bit!) and was rewarded with another CME just over the horizon. It was a bit of a shame I couldn't quite capture it in its entirety, but it did look pretty special peeking out just behind a ridge of mountains:
The cockpit view wasn't bad either:
I set down and went for a little scuffle in the SRV but after a while the light was just too much and the whole environment felt pretty oppressive; so I retreated to the Cass and headed out of masslock range to jump. Cue screaming temperature warnings instantly! Fired off the last heat sink and just scraped out of their in time. Sorry Cassie!
Decided that was a good spot to end at, so I laid in a course for home and shortly after was rolling back into Jameson Memorial. Hmm - bit of time left actually, what to do... Lightbulb goes off in my head - how did I miss this - somehow I've managed to avoid Mitterand Hollow all these years!
This calls for something a little more nimble than the Cass (who deserved a break!). Jackrabbit it is! Hopped in the Courier, carried out the usual sedate exit procedure (aka line up, max the throttle, hit the burners and punch it baby!) and nipped on over to Epsilon Indi.
This system is home to Mitterand Hollow - a contender for the craziest moon in the galaxy
With an orbital period of 86 seconds, it absolutely screams around the planet New Africa - and makes for a fairly exciting supercruise approach, as you try and time it right to chase the moon down while the planet's gravity well does its best to drag you back. Celestial cat and mouse ahoy!Managed to set down (got a little giddy - when you drop out of orbital cruise, the planet pinwheeling past in the background is very off-putting!) and grabbed a quick pic (not the best sorry, I was pretty tired at this point!):
Stayed around for a few days (aka several minutes!), hopped back in the courier, nose to Shinrarta and jumped. Rolled back into dock pretty late at night - a little hot, a little queasy after Mitterand! - but a lot happier
It's kinda reassuring to know that whatever happens in the coming days, whether the Thargoids do come for a fight - or if we go back to tearing ourselves apart! - the galaxy will quietly keep on spinning with its never ending treasures...Time for some shuteye - tomorrow's going to be a busy day...
Footnote: Just wanted to say, I'm very, very surprised and grateful for the "likes"! I just wrote a few of these bumbling entries for my own entertainment more than anything else and didn't expect anyone to read them! I fully appreciate they're nothing like so many of the entries on Inara (I read a lot of them whilst out in the black and they're always of such an incredibly high standard!), so I just wanted to take a quick moment to say thank you, its tremendously appreciated!