For the first leg of Celebration of Early Astronomy 7 we set off from the Thethys system and as a warm-up tour some of the nearby sights to the human populated bubble, included the first exoplanet discovered around a main-sequence star, as well as various nebulae, a pulsar, and a nova!
Since we are staying near the bubble, no worries in case you accidentally forgot something before departing, or need to alter something on your ship build. We are basically going around the bubble counter-clockwise starting in the east. The furthest we get from Sol on this particular leg is 657 Ly, so will always be quite easy to pop back in to a nearby populated system.
Dates
Start Date: January 19, 2025
End Date: January 26, 2025
Distances
Basecamp Line: 710.60 Ly
Main Waypoints: 2,328.29 Ly
Map, (click for full size):

Basecamp: Nova Aquila No 3
Main Waypoints
- Map References quick reference list, more details below
- Thethys
- 51 Pegasi
- HIP 62270
- Sheron
- HR 6387
- Snake Sector PD-S b4-1
- PSR J1856-3754
- Nova Aquila No 3
Main Waypoints Details
- Map Reference: Thethys
- POI: GL 135 & AB Doradus Moving Group
- GL 135, known in 3310 as Thethys, is one of the stars in the AB Doradus Moving Group, a group of 30 stars that are moving through space together with similar age and composition due to being formed in the same stellar nursery. AB Doradus is the primary star of the AB Doradus moving group, hence the name. This particular moving group, being roughly 20 parsecs from Sol is the closest known co-moving group to Sol.
- SIMBAD Link
- EDSM Link
- Map Reference: 51 Pegasi
- POI: 51 Pegasi b
- 51 Pegasi b, officially named Dimidium, discovered in 1995 was the first exoplanet discovered orbiting a main-sequence star. (First exoplanets were discovererd in orbit of PSR J1300+1240 (which is also in-game))
It is the prototype planet for the class of planets called “hot Jupiters” due to their proximity to their parent stars. 51 Pegasi b orbits at 0.05 AU, closer to its parent star than Mercury does the sun.
The 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Didier Queloz, and Michel Mayor in part for their discovery of 51 Pegasi b.
The planet was officially named Dimidium after a public nomination and voting process by the IAU, the winning name Dimidium, meaning “half” in Latin refers to the planet’s mass, which is roughly half that of Jupiter. - SIMBAD Link
- EDSM Link
- Map Reference: HIP 62270
- POI: Coalsack Nebula
- The Coalsack Nebula is a dark nebula, visible to the naked eye as obscuring parrt of the Milky Way in the Crux constellation region of the sky. It covers a rectangle about 7 degrees by 5 degrees in the sky, and extends partially into the Centaurus and Musca regions of the sky as well.
The first reported observation of it was by Vicente Yáñez Pinzón in 1499. - SIMBAD Link
- EDSM Link
- Map Reference: Sheron
- POI: IC 4604, Rho Ophiuchi Cloud Complex
- IC 4604, also known as the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex is roughly 460 lightyears from our solar system centered in the sky around the star Rho Ophiuchi (albeit further from us than Rho Ophiuchi), and one of the closest star-froming regions to our solar system. It consists of the star-forming cloud L1688 and various filament clouds known as the Dark River clouds.
Additionally in this system Sheron, there is a megaship worth scanning with some lore logs related to humanity’s history with the Thargoids. - SIMBAD Link
- EDSM Link
- Map Reference: 5 Rho Ophiuchi
- POI: Rho Ophiuchi
- Rho Ophicuhi, aka 5 Ophicuhi is a multi-star system in the Ophiuchus constellation. The main pair Rho Ophiuchi AB consists of two blue subgiants. Rho Ophiuchi A emits X-rays with strong variability, however the cause of these is not known. Leading hypothesis are a magnetically active surface spot, or a low mass companion it feeds material from that we haven’t been able to distinguish apart from it.
Additionally HD 147932, designated Rho Ophiuchi C is located roughly 17,000 AU (8.5 million lightseconds) from the AB pair (in-game it’s not that far, however this is due to that measurement being published in 2013 after galactic generation).
Further there is also the Rho Ophiuchi DE pair, which are not represented in-game due to publication in 2013 in the same observations as the distance measurement for Rho Ophicuhi C. - SIMBAD Link
- EDSM Link
- Map Reference: HR 6387
- POI: Pipe Nebula
- The Pipe Nebula, aka Barnard 59 is a dark nebula in the Ophiuchus constellation shaped like a smoking pipe. It consists of two parts, the Pipe Bowl Nebula and the Pipe Stem Nebula. It is part of the larger Dark Horse Nebula.
- SIMBAD Link
- EDSM Link
- Map Reference: PSR J1856-3754
- POI: Coronet Pulsar
- The Coronet Pulsar, cataloged as RX J1856.5-3754 and PSRJ1856-3754 is the closest known neutron star to our own solar system. It was hypothesized for a time to be a “quark star” a still hypothetical star type called a quark star because of early measurements erroneously gauging it as having a surface temperature of 700,000 Celsius. Later measurements more accurately showed a surface temperature of 434,000 Celsius, allowing it to fit back within the models for neutron stars.
- SIMBAD Link
- EDSM Link
- Map Reference: Snake Sector PD-S b4-1
- POI: Snake Nebula
- The Snake Nebula, aka Barnard 72 is another dark nebula in the Ophiuchus constellation of the sky. It is a small but visible s-shaped dust alne near the Pipe Nebula. It is part of the larger Dark Horse Nebula.
- SIMBAD Link
- EDSM Link
- Map Reference: Nova Aquila No 3
- POI: Nova Aquila 1918
- V603 Aquilae, aka Nova Aquilae 1918 aka Nova Aquila No 3, was a bright nova observed in 1918. It was the brightest nova to appear since Kepler’s Supernova in 1604. It is a white dwarf in a close binary with its companion red dwarf orbiting each other every 3 hours and 20 mintues. (although in game it is inaccurately a neutron star).
Was first seen by Zygmunt Laskowski, and confirmed by Grace Cook on June 8th 1918, it reached peak magnitude of -0.5, and was briefly the third brightest object in the sky, only dimmer than Sirius and Canopus. This is the brightest nova in the era of telescopes.
The nova event itself is what occurs when the white dwarf has sucked enough material off of it’s companion star to fill it’s Roche Lobe. Once the Roche Lobe has filled, it explodes in a massive thermonuclear explosion, which forms a bright expanding shell. Another nova is expected in the imminent future from T Corona Borealis, scientist were expecting it in the latter half of 2024, but it has not occured yet as of writing this, but is expected quite literally, any day now. - SIMBAD Link
- EDSM Link