CEA 4 Sneak Peek

This is all a work in progress, but here is some of the work being done towards planning the fourth Celebration of Early Astronomy expedition.

For CEA 4 we are looking at a start date sometime in January or February 2022. In regards to the route we are looking to rehash some of the waypoints that were visited on CEA 1 & 2, as well as some new ones as well.

For a visual reference, here is a map chart showing the routes of all of the CEA expeditions, as well as the current in-progress route for CEA4. Note that I intend to add some more sights from the “northeast” area of CEA2 to the CEA4 route as well.

  • CEA1: Blue
  • CEA2: Orange
  • CEA3: Green
  • CEA4: Red

Waypoint System Changes in CEA3

The shape of the routes for CEA1 and CEA2 could at times be described as a bit jagged. However with the help of a database of non-procedural systems created for me by CMDR Waterlubber of Simbad Regime and a spreadsheet tool I made for myself I have been able to do more focused searching of waypoints. This resulted in a relatively smoother line for CEA3. As such certain changes have been implemented to what each tier of our waypoints mean than what we had in the previous expeditions.

For those new to Celebration of Early Astronomy those tiers are:

  • Basecamp
  • Main
  • Optionals

Below I will outline what each one means now with CEA3

Basecamp Waypoints

  • Brief: Basecamp waypoints are the bookends of each leg of the expedition.
  • EDSM: These are the waypoints that will be listed on our expedition’s EDSM page. (In the past Main waypoints were also listed, this has changed and only Basecamps will be listed now)
  • Finalization: These are all finalized before the expedition even begins, they are all finalized as of this post.
  • Reality: All Basecamp waypoints are based on real celestial objects. That means either the system is based on a real star or is within the confines of a real nebula or star cluster.
  • Routing: The route between these waypoints should be quite sensible and smooth.
  • Reachability: All basecamp waypoints should be reachable to a 35 Ly jump range ship as far as I am aware, at the very least with minor FSD Injection, but probably won’t even need that.

Main Waypoints

  • Brief: Main Waypoint are along a fairly smooth route between basecamps, set in stone pre-expedition, and featuring sights based on real celestial objects. Basically they are more like how optionals used to be in CEA 1 and 2.
  • EDSM: Main waypoints are not listed on the EDSM route. This is a change from the past.
  • Finalization: Main waypoints are finalized prior to the expedition
  • Reality: Main waypoints are all based on real celestial objects. That means either the system is based on a real star or is within the confines of a real nebula or star cluster.
  • Routing: The route between these waypoints should be quite sensible and smooth.
  • Reachability: All Main Waypoints should be reachable by a ship and not require a fleet carrier. I make no guarantees as to range minimums however.

Optional Waypoints

  • Brief: Optionals are larger detours from the main line between basecamps, and are not always based on real celestial objects (but generally will be still). Unlike previous expeditions, these may experience changes throughout the expedition.
  • EDSM: Optional waypoints are not listed on the EDSM route.
  • Finalization: Optional waypoints are only finalized once the leg they are part of has begun. Additions to the list of Optionals for a particular leg may change up until the day the leg begins.
  • Reality: While generally they will be, not all will be based on real celestial objects. There may be sites (such as Colonia for example) listed that are of significant interest, but “Not Based on Real Object” (NBORO) any Optional Waypoints like that will be prefixed in the waypoints list with (NBORO) to indicate this.
  • Routing: Optional waypoints will be placed between main waypoints where sensible, however I can make no guarantee as to the sensibility or smoothness of the route between optional waypoints themselves. The order as listed in announcement may include some backtracking.
  • Reachability: All Optional Waypoints should be reachable at least by carrier. If for some reason something gets on there that absolutely is not reachable at all let me know, but I make effort not to include such systems.

Waypoint List Releases

With the mention above about Optional Waypoints not being finalized until a leg begins you might be wondering how those are announced. The full list of waypoints for each leg, including Optionals will be released both in a post here on the official site, as well as with an announcement in the Discord server linking to that post.

Celebration of Early Astronomy 3!

Dates: July 3, 2021 to October 2, 2021

Map (click for full size):

“The early 2000s, they were often the speculative setting of early science fiction works. Early imaginings of interstellar travel, first contact with aliens, apocalypses, pandemics, 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 gems of our galaxy by then.

Lucky for us in 3307 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 3307.

We will be setting of from our faction’s home system Keltim, also known as Gliese 149 to the humans of 2020. From there we will be travelling our route clockwise. After that we shall proceed northward past Colonia region and the galactic center, and then take a route back home visiting such places as Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the galaxy’s center on the way back.

— Patron Kezika T. Wylair

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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: https://expedition.page.link/Register
Rosterhttps://expedition.page.link/Roster
EDSM Pagehttps://expedition.page.link/EDSM

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Summary and Information

Dates: July 3, 2021 to October 2, 2021
Waypoint Count:26 Primary, optionals to be added as expedition progresses
Expedition Discordhttps://expedition.page.link/Discord

Notes: Some of the legs, mainly the ones north of the Galactic Centre have minimal waypoints and are self-guided exploration mainly, due to the lack of real-world objects in those areas. One of the waypoints we are heading to is the furthest north non-procedural star so far found in the in-game galaxy.

Odyssey Compatibility Notes: With the servers split, main events such as mass jumps and parties will be held in Horizons. Some waypoints may additionally have a secondary Odyssey event, but all waypoints will at least have the mass jump event as well as the ending party occurring in Horizons.

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Waypoints

Start: Keltim
End: T Tauri

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Current Waypoint List
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Leg 1

7/3/2021 – 7/17/2021 (2 weeks)

  • Keltim (Gliese 149)
  • BD+06 3756 (NGC 6633 48)
    • Optional: IC 4665 P 351
    • Optional: CoRoT-6
    • Optional: CoRoT-9
    • Optional: CoRoT-16
    • Optional: Y Ophiuchi
    • Optional: CoRoT-17
    • Optional: Nu Aquilae
  • R Scuti
  • CoRoT-27
  • NGC 6755 MMU 3
  • HD 181709
    • Optional: PSR J1901+0716
  • HD 339086
    • Optional: Campbell’s Hydrogen Star
  • Merrill’s Star

Leg 2

7/17/2021 – 7/24/2021 (1 week)

  • PSR J1926+1648
  • PSR J1915+1009
    • Optional: HD 174372
  • PSR J1902+0615

Leg 3

7/24/2021 – 8/7/2021 (2 weeks)

  • XTE J1856+053
  • PSR J1852+0031
  • AXP 1E1841-045
  • 15 Sagittarii

Leg 4

8/7/2021 – 8/21/2021 (2 weeks)

  • 13 Mu Sagittarii
  • HD 158320 — (furthest north known non-procedural in the game)

Leg 5

8/21/2021 – 9/4/2021 (2 weeks)

  • PSR J1740-3052
  • G2 Dust Cloud Sector JH-V C2-7255 – (G2 Dust Cloud)

Leg 6

9/4/2021 – 9/18/2021 (2 weeks)

  • Sagittarius A*
  • Great Annihilator
  • IGR J17285-2922
  • HD 157693

Leg 7

9/18/2021 – 10/2/2021

  • Cl Pismis 24 1
  • Hen 2-215
  • T Tauri

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This 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.

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Welcome to C.E.A!

Hello! We are an Elite: Dangerous expedition series focusing on real-world celestial objects in the in-game Elite: Dangerous galaxy. Additionally outside of expeditions we have an in-game player minor faction based out of the Keltim system, and themed around “Space Madness” treatment.

Most of our planning, coordination, and discussion happen on our Discord server, which can be found at https://theexpedition.info/Discord feel free to join us there if you have any questions or need assistance!