The Spirograph Nebula

First reached by myself on the evening of the 5-APR-3301, the Spirograph Nebula or IC 418 is a planetary nebula 1100 light years from earth and is one third of a light year across.

It was given the name Spirograph after the patterns in the gas seen in enhanced telescopic images taken from Earth resemble the Spirograph toys which you can make pretty coloured geometric patterns with a series of different sized plastic wheels. I had one myself as a kid.

To find it in Elite Dangerous, make your way towards the Witch's Head Nebula then as you reach it hang a left.

The Spirograph Nebula is stunning.  I learned about it from twitch streamer O_Dingo77, who in turn learned about it from one of his viewers Harbinger73 (who's got the discovery credit for the entire system).

The nebula is lit internally by the large B-Type star at the centre BD-12 1172.  It gives off the same UV glow that other blue giants like Beta-1 Tucanae give off too, giving any close objects including the first couple of high metal planets (all with rings) and unearthly purple glow.

Farther away from the central star, the green glow of the nebula really starts to come to life. it even turned my cockpit green.

It made me wonder as I was flying around and scanning the outer system that it life formed and if it ever did reach sentience in this system, they would grow up believing that this greenspace was the norm, and would get quite the shock when they left their home system for the first time and saw the true darkness of space.  It would make a wonderful plot for a sci-fi story!

The B-Class star also has a couple of brown dwarf companions and also a captured M Class star too. Planet 16 is also a hot "Venusian" world and is classed as a terraformable due to the high water content in the atmosphere.  If this is ever settled (although I can't see it happening in my lifetime) I'm bagsy'ing some real estate there now!!!

And of course the backdrop itself makes a wonderful setting to show of the beauty of the Imperial Clipper.  The teal colour of the nebula reminds of of the warm seas of the Caribbean or some other exotic locale.

And finally, looking back from the next jump here is the Spirograph Nebula as it appears from outside (blue fuzzy patch next to the clipper's nose) dwarfed by the ever growing size of Barnard's Loop.

And so, I leave the Spirograph behind as my journey towards Orion continues, I didn't really want to leave the system, but I can't wait until the Alliance Exploration Programme extends this far out and they build a station in this system, it will make a wonderful space tourist destination.... in 500 years we'll have the Spirograph Nebula Hilton :-)