Log # 10 Nebula sightseeing trip towards the core
07 Dec 2017(Wettoast) Wanda Fersegi
A journey through various nebula to the core Sol: Dec 1
Before leaving on my trek to the other side of the galaxy, I had ordered a delacy anaconda be built in titan city's shipyard, all modules' shipping expenses coming out of my own wallet. I had finally amassed enough credits to make a large purchase such as this insurable comfortably, but I still had a hard time in the past months and years trusting myself to fly large hulls. Large price, larger consequences. If my parents saw me making this kind of purchase , my mother would faint and my father would be yelling at the bank to cancel my account . Their stingy-ness had never rubbed off on me to the point of never taking large financial leaps, but if it did I would still be flying nothing larger than a delacy cobra. Could I trust myself not to scrape the station entryway a few meters wider ? I've flown and landed the type 9 super-brick, but that feels like a fluke. Flying anything requiring a large landing pad causes me to tense up and contort in ways I had not thought possible. I'll have to force myself to learn my way around one of the "big three". But coming around to naming it, I was having trouble with what to call it . So I decided to name the ship after the person whom I wish one day to replace the syphilitic delane pirate in a suit Zachary Hudson, that person being Ivy Cooper.
So upon returning from beagle point, the last parts were arriving and being installed. Just one more day to wait .
The construction was complete and the hull had all ordered modules installed the next day, a notification on my slate alerting me to titan city's dock. I could have sworn to have run to the dock faster than the tram ! Then I saw it, and screeched like I was five years old ... Grey military design camouflage paint and in large white letters on the side, " FNS Ivy Cooper" . Camouflage is a bit out of place for an exploration purposed vessel, but no complaints here though .
With the Ivy Cooper complete, I figured that a maiden voyage was in order. Stripped down, lightweight modules with Felicity's magic affecting the frame-shift drive to the tune of just over 50 light years once again, I could jet out coreward and help myself to some discovery profit before the new year arrives. This time, I would stop in as many nebula as I could, looking for valuable discoveries within . I don't think anyone would be too mad if I came back and scooted off again into the middle of nowhere within the span of a week .... But first, I should make a stop for some final adjustments and touches here and there.
Currie enterprise : Fionn
A sort of second home to me due to both being abundant in modules and the home of my supported faction, Fionn will be my one stop before making yet another long voyage into the deep nothingness. I had decided at the last moment to lose the fighter hangar and downgrade the srv hangar to a single rover in order to save weight, those little differences in jump range can end up saving you a lot of time while appearing negligible. I don't have a track record of being too careful with the rover but maybe I can teach myself not to be an idiot this time around . After a few more adjustments to the size of the power distributor, thruster size, and number of auto field maintenance units, I was ready to get flying towards the nebulas in the galactic core region and any along the way.
Ring shutter :
Greae Phoea nebula
In the Greae Phoea sector of stars, a red nebula hangs around within a few thousand light years distance to other red and some purple colored nebula, all of them visible from the area of space that surrounds the Greae Phoea nebula. I had come across a heavy ringed world with over 2.5 g in gravity and a ring system that when shadowed by the planet, would allow the red of the gas cloud behind it to shine through.
Even with the 2.5 g gravity pressing down, I couldn't help but to stay for a while and take in the multiple nebula in the sky. I made sure I got plenty with my camera this time around, nothing here is getting away without it having a picture taken!
Glowing icy canyons : Greae Phoea nebula
Only 2 or so days in and I may have already found one of my favorite locations on this trip. This icy moon in the Greae Phoea gas cloud has mountains and ridges that when struck with light at the poles of the planet or a shallow angle, appear to glow blue in contrast with the red of the nebula . I found myself riding the rover through canyons for a few hours while looking for any water geysers, vents, and any sort of organic growth that could be growing on those vents.
While making my way closer and closer to the core, I made a side effort to look for large bright burning stars such as B,O, red giant , yellow giant, carbon stars , wolf rayet class stars . While I should be used to this by now, jumping into a system with any huge B or O class star blinds you temporarily. So now I finally have an excuse to use these....
hehehe...
Egnaix nebula ( above core region )
In a huge contrast to the light of the galactic core, a nebula in the Egnaix sector of stars obscures the core's light while having very few stars inside its own cloud. One F class system at the edge, two M classes that could barely qualify as inside the cloud, and one B class main star system . Some stars that are close behind the cloud interestingly have their light filtered through, differentiating them from the few hundred billion star glow of the galactic core. So I navigated inside and found the light of the core significantly less present within.
The planet I had navigated to was orbiting the A and F class stars of the B class main star, and was cloaked from the light of the galactic core completely. A boiler of 1,212k in a black shroud deprived of the light of the outside universe. That's amazing and scary at the same time somehow... In this system, it is next to impossible to tell the brown and green hues apart, the colors would become more vivid once exiting the cloud and looking from the outside inwards.
I decided to find a place to set down nearby the cloud in order to return quickly if I decided that I wanted more scans before setting off the next day. Doing that, I was able to image the nebula while coasting over and through the ring system of the landing moon's parent body. With this system's view of both the nebula and the galaxy below, I would make a priority of using this system as a waypoint and as a place to hunker down.
Stranoa nebula : red giant with red nebula backdrop, the black gas giant, a ghostly O class.
Reaching this sector of stars was a bit of a backtrack to travelling further into the core regions, but it was a backtrack that was well worth it. Even though universal cartographics had noted the star was discovered by a cmdr Solaris, I was treated to one of the best views maybe even in the galaxy .
The intense red of the nebula was able to overcome the light of the giant, providing a sunset like backdrop to the planetary body I chose to land on. Moving away from the star to a landable planetary body that was more suited for a pilot in no state of mind for a high g landing, I made my way to a moon where the sun took up a smaller portion of the sky.
Upon setting down I began to lose track of time as planets went on spinning around their parent bodies and messages going unanswered on the comms panel. I'm not usually one to zone out without the assistance of drugs first, but I guess this could be considered a natural zone out ? I don't know... All I want to do is sit here now ......Never leaving, just sitting under this pretty sky forever.
Eventually I did snap out of it and take off again, apologetically answering messages angry at my delay and considering curtailing some of my activities in the core after realizing how susceptible I was to inaction or complete zoning out .One message came from my father, telling me my mother was worried sick after not replying and that he was livid that I had come back from Beagle point and Colonia only to shoot off again in a matter of days. After that little incident I decided to look for any more places of interest within the Stranoa sector nebula before making up my mind on whether or not to shorten the trip.
My search for strange and interesting systems brought me across a black hole main body system within the nebula, stellar bodies cloaked in complete darkness and a dark shade of red . Considering the view of the red giant combining its bright light with the nebula to create a bright almost assault on the senses, this was the exact opposite.
Dark and foreboding, the planetary bodies were difficult to spot without the assistance of the navigation computer. A gas giant's rings almost invisible to the naked eye could rip any careless explorer out of supercrusie, or tear them to trillions of pieces should a ships computer have an error and doesn't detect the oncoming asteroids at multiple times the speed of light.
Couldn't take too many photos here, so I moved on to look for one more area of interest within the nebula. This would bring me to an O class star, burning away in the darker gases of the nebula . This would create a ghostly appearance for the O class, its deep purple light shining past even the other less luminous stars in the system, reaching out to more than a few thousand light seconds.
I think I'll need to give the idea of progressing into the core slightly more thought, still jaded stiff off the beagle trip there was no way I planned to stay out too long again. Another whim trip to add to my list of incredibly bad ideas, all over the excitement of getting a new ship to have my mitts all over....
So I guess from here I'd better decide whether to push on or turn back. I've already got a heap of explaining to do and I'm in a whole pile of trouble on top of that, so I guess staying out longer couldn't hurt too much .... Just a few overdue fines and parents who probably want ground me as a 33 year old adult or yell my ears off ....