Explorer's Log: 3-April-3301

Exploration in #EliteDangerous is like riding a rollercoaster, once you go for one ride you get the buzz and want to go again.

This morning I headed off out again from Tsu.  I didn't notice last night, but trading in that 5.5 million credits worth of Universal Cartographics Data has also made me friendly with the Alliance. A secondary gain, yay!

I missed my Imperial Clipper on the last trip in the ASP.  While I appreciate the ASP has a superior Frame Shift Drive by a factor of 3:2, I just can't take the Selfies I want to in it.  So I headed back to Beta-1 Tucanae first of all to change out the ASP for the Clipper.  I left all the modules and armaments intact that I have been building up in the ship.  Yes I still have class 6 shields and 2 large Class 3 pulse lasers!  The only things I stripped out were the Cargo Bays - swapped out for Auto Repair systems, and the large cargo bay for a Class 7 fuel scoop (star dimmer).

Its taken a lot of jumps to get 500 light years from Sol but now finally at the end of the day I am starting to find unexplored systems for the first time.  Everyone heads to Orion on their first couple of exploration trips, it is like a lighthouse because of Barnard's Loop; but the stellar carpet is getting quite highly trampled by explorers passing the same systems that in a few months I would not expect to find any unexplored systems at all between Sol and that sector for hundreds of light years across.

I had to laugh at a few CMDR names that I passed on the way:

* I guess it didn't work out with Daniel Jackson of Stargate SG-1

* And the epic fail of the CMDR with the mis-spelt name

A whole planet of Rosé??

Cherry Ice Cream Planet?

 Off to Orion....

And yes, although the Clipper is limited to just under a 20 light year jump range, it will get me to Orion as I can plot a route to get there; EZ Orionis is right there in the middle of the Orion Nebula Stellar Nursery :-)