Celebration of Early Astronomy

"The early 2000s, they were often the speculative setting of early science fiction works. Early imaginings of interstellar travel, first contact with aliens, apocalypses, you name it, there was probably a movie or book set in the early 21st century of it. While humanity may not have invented interstellar travel by 2020 as many novels and films purported, they still discovered plenty of gems of our galaxy by then.

Lucky for us in 3305 we do have interstellar travel and can visit these gems that humans on Earth in the early 21st century could only dream of visiting. So that is just what we will be setting out to do. This expedition will visit many of the noteworthy celestial objects discovered by the early 21st century, some of which even still are considered noteworthy even today in 3305.

We will be setting off from the Simbad's Refuge station in Nu Tauri. Named after the SIMBAD star catalogue used in the late 20th and early 21st century, located in the Nu Tauri system of the Taurus constellation."

- CMDR Kezika​

Please fill out a sign-up form if you're coming along!

Note: even if you're not sure yet all your details, the form will give you an edit link once you submit so that you can come back and edit your submission in the future with any changes you make. Just make sure to save your link!

Sign-up form:

Roster:

EDSM Page:

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Map

5.1: Lich (PSR J1300+1240)​

Freely exploring the Barnard's Loop area

An objective for those interested and good at pathfinding.

1: DM99 58.3​

2: BSM2011 E110​

4: EES2009 Persei J03286006+3122826​

5: 2MASS J03292407+3119577​

2.1: NGC 281 (BD+55 191)​

Edited in Note: Apparently I forgot to edit this here too in time. But it is a shorter route to hit XTE J1752-223 then GRS 1758-258, which is how the EDSM roster has it set, I'm leaving this list here in the unedited order since some people may have began using it in this order here as we're already well into this leg, just keep that in mind if you're using this list as your reference for waypoints.

6.1: Great Annihilator​

3.1: OGLE-05-071L​

--===================================================================A vast majority of the in-game galaxy is procedurally generated, but as part of its creation, data from real celestial objects was also added in. The landmarks in this expedition are all real actual celestial objects. While stuff in their systems, or in the case of nebulae the systems themselves, may be procedurally generated based on the input information, the landmarks themselves are very much real. This expedition is to set out to visit many of those, including items that were notable when discovered, and to explore the procedurally generated spaces between them, and perhaps in them with the recent addition of Notable Stellar Phenomena.Note, that as we get further from Earth the distances between landmarks begins to increase simply due to how little we actually know about our real sky so far, and the difficulty in resolving specific objects thousands of lightyears away. The waypoints nearer the galactic center also tend to be more pulsars and quasars as well because of this.======================================================================================================================================[/SIZE]This expedition will take place across approximately 10 weeks with basecamps, and some events at the basecamps scheduled along the way. Also the chance with some of the landmarks to go outside on a clear night and find where you are in the game in the real sky, as some of the closer to Earth landmarks are visible in the night sky, some to the naked eye, and some only requiring only minimal astronomy equipment.If you know of any non-procedural waypoints out there near our planned route that I have missed*, feel free to let me know, and also if you are planning on coming along on this expedition please make sure to comment here and fill out the below linked registration form, so that we can get this imported over to EDSM as quickly as possible so that people can track their progress on EDSM. This will be a week to week multi-leg expedition, like how Distant Worlds 2 was if you were along for that. However all our waypoints will be up in advance for those either short on time or needing to skip ahead on some week or weeks due to real life scheduling conflicts. Or if you just want to do a little research of your own on these places.* - Note that there are some non-procedurally named nebula out there that use a procedurally generated shape as their representation, I have had to sadly nix a few of those such as the Cat's Paw Nebula and NGC 6188 for example.: TBD, will be 10 weeks long and starting either in late December or early January.: 62 primary with 3 non-primary*: Some of the systems may be difficult to reach on shorter jump range ships, as well as shorter jump range ships potentially having difficulty in navigating the region in and around Barnard's Loop. It is recommended to bring a ship with at least 30Ly of jump range. The first two weeks will be shorter distances, however as we start getting further away from Earth, the amount of distance covered per week will increase greatly as the number of waypoints on the leg decrease. For specifics on that the longest single week leg is on the return trip, and is 22k Ly. Besides that one I have kept the rest of the legs to less than 15k Ly per weeks (some are longer, but two week length.) The specific distances will be listed below.: If you are tracking your expedition progress using EDSM once we are imported over there it is important that despite the two being located very close to each other, that you dovisit Trappist-1 after you have left from Nu Tauri, as visiting Trappist-1 will signify to EDSM that you have completed your expedition. (I am attempting to get this imported to EDSM as soon as possible, it should be there soon): The non-primary waypoints are ones of interest, but they are either a major detour, or are very difficult to reach for ships without extreme jump ranges.========================================================================================================================================================================================================Key:Blue: Main RouteOrange: Route including non-primary waypointsRed: Stations and other POIs outside the inhabited bubble.=========================Note that these are subject to change (additions only unless I found out one of these is unreachable) as I am still burying my head into SIMBAD and EDSM comparing them for non-procedural objects and adding ones that are close enough and in-game.: Waypoint [ - Basecamp if applicable] [(Galaxy Map Reference if different from Waypoint name)]Waypoints with decimals are non-primary waypoints for the extra ambitiousFor our full descriptions and write-ups on each of the checkpoints head over to our EDSM route here and then click the magnifying glasses over on the right side of the waypoints' row to get more information, including links to the respective pages for the celesital object on the SIMBAD Strasbourg database.(Fri. 1/3 -> Fri. 1/10): Nu Tauri - Simbad's Refuge asteroid base: W Ursae Majoris: Betelgeuse: T Tauri: Y Canum Venaticorum: Keck Binary Pulsar (PSR J0751+1807): Pi Puppis: Vela Pulsar: Collinder 140 Open Cluster (HIP 38064): VY Canis Majoris: Mu Columbae: Alnitak: Mintaka: Rigel: Spirograph Nebula (BD-12 1172)- (Fri. 1/10 -> Fri. 1/17): EZ Orionis: Orion Nebula (OW Orionis): HD 39716: HR 1950: Messier 78 (Trapezium Sector CB-W C2-3): Horsehead Nebula (Trapezium Sector VY-A C8): HD 38563C- (Fri. 1/17 -> Fri. 1/24)Collinder 69 Open Cluster: AE Aurigae: NGC 1333: 53 Arietis: V Cygni (HIP 102082): Deneb (Alpha Cygni): Veil West Nebula (Veil West Sector DL-Y D68): North America Nebula (North America Sector LC-V C2-3): Pelican Nebula (North America Sector JH-V C2-26): S171 43- (Fri. 1/24 -> Fri. 2/7): Bow-Tie Nebula (NGC 40 Star): GCRV 2334: Heart and Soul Nebulae (Hypoae Ain MO-I D9-37): RS Persei: Bubble Nebula (Bubble Sector PD-S B4-4): Mu Cephei: KY Cygni- (Fri. 2/7 -> Sun. 2/23): Cygnus OB2-12 (HIP 101364): V1357 Cygni: NGC 6886 (CSI+19-20105): LGM-1: PSR J1901+0716: V1343 Aquilae: Kes-75 Magnetar (PSR J1846-0258)- (Sun. 2/23 -> Sun. 3/15): GRS 1758-258: XTE J1752-223: OGLE235-MOA53: OGLE-2007-BLG-368L: GRS 1730-312: OGLE 2005-BLG-390L (OGLE-05-390L): PSR J1748-2446A: Sagittarius A* & S2 (Sagittarius A*): G2 Gas Cloud (G2 Dust Cloud Sector JH-V C2-7255)- (Sun. 3/15 -> Thu. 4/2): GRS 1737-31: SLX 1746-331: GX 339-4 (V821 Arae): GHJ2008 3: V381 Normae: Circinus Pulsar- (Thu. 4/2 -> Sun. 4/12): TrA X-1: PSR J1709-4429: V1033 Scorpii: Pismis 24-1 & Lobster Nebula (Cl Pismis 2)- (Sun. 4/12 -> Sun. 4/26): BD-21 4483: CD-23 14350: SSTGLMC G014.1819-00.5307: SO4-H1E 2000: HD 112272: OGLE2-TR-L9: QZ Carinae: OGLE-TR-113: Fine Ring Nebula (Shapley 1): HR 6164: 46 Upsilon Sagitarii: Snake Nebula (Snake Sector PD-S B4-1): Antares: HR 6628: Pipe Nebula (HIP 84605): Coronet Pulsar (PSR J1856-3754): HIP 91911: TRAPPIST-1This post will be edited and replied to in the upcoming weeks with more substantial information regarding the waypoints as well as any tertiary information that would be useful for the expedition, such as navigation tips around permit locked sectors for example in the Barnard's Loop area.The specifics, EDSM Links, SIMBAD Links, and notes of the rest of the waypoints will be announced in the coming weeks. However the planned route goes around some things in and near "The Bubble", to the areas in and around Barnard's Loop. Out to The Bubble Nebula, then proceeds towards the Galactic Core, eventually stopping off at the G2 Dust Cloud, which is a little past Sagittarius A*, one of the furthest reachable non-procedural celestial object I am aware of in the in-game universe (the furthest being GRS 1737-31), and then proceeds back with some items on an optional return route to the core worlds with the final destination being TRAPPIST-1, the system that Elite: Dangerous' Stellar Forge basically predicted and sort of where the real meets the procedural.================