ASTRONOMY BASICS | USING SHIPS TO MAP THE UNIVERSE
Astronomy
When you begin the game, only your initial solar system is known to you. If you call up your star map you will see your location relative to the rest of the universe - but other stars and systems are not visible. Astronomy is one of two methods for discovering other solar systems in the universe.
Observatories are a unique type of facility that can be built on almost any type of planet - but depending on the type of planet, they will serve different purposes.
Regardless of the planet type, building observatories on a planet will automatically produce a tactical display for that planet after the turn is processed. The more observatories you build, the larger the tactical display. Your observatories will produce a tactical display with a radius of up to eight (8) squares around the planet. Building additional facilities does not increase the tactical display above this maximum.
Observatories built on habitable worlds serve a second purpose. Your astronomers use these to automatically search for the next closest star to that habitable world. This search occurs during turn processing and is an automatic, on-going process.
Only habitable worlds with observatories participate in the search for new solar systems. The number of turns it takes to uncover a new solar system is directly proportional to the distance the undiscovered solar system is from the closest habitable world with observatories. Unlike espionage and research tasks, however, you can not start or stop astronomy and there is no way to know the progress being made. (Astronomers have no idea when they will find the next star - they just start searching from the habitable world outwards.)
For example, let's say you have one habitable world with several observatories built on it. There is an undiscovered solar system some distance away. After a certain number of turns, your astronomers will locate that solar system, notify you and it will now appear on your star map. Now let's say you had a habitable world that is located half-way between your original habitable world and the undiscovered solar system. An equal number of observatories on that second habitable world will discover the new solar system in about half the time.
From this example, it should be noted that building observatories on all of your habitable worlds greatly improves the rate new solar systems are discovered.
Building more than sixteen (16) observatories will not improve your ability to find nearby solar systems.
Another popular way to discover new solar systems is to send ships out from a habitable world in a variety of directions in the hopes that they will encounter another solar system. You may have mixed results if you attempt this but it can be a handy way of quickly locating nearby systems.
If your ship comes within a reasonable range on an uncharted planet or star it will automatically appear on your star map. The attitude your ships have toward planets will not affect whether or not planets appear on your star map.
Tip! Be sure to occasionally display all planets (not just stars) on your star map to find planets your ships may have passed when they were not close enough to chart the star.
ASTRONOMY | ASTRONOMY BASICS | USING SHIPS TO MAP THE UNIVERSE
