Supermassive Black Holes tend to form when an initial Black Hole begins to swallow even more mass including other Black Hole. With time they acquire a vast mass - and become a key compoment of the galaxy. With much of the other galactic mass rotating around them and can be several million solar masses.
— In-Game Description
Sagittarius A*, often abbreviated as Sgr A* or "Saga", is a famous system that serves as the exact centre of the galaxy. It is home to the game's only known Supermassive Black Hole, as well as a white star called Source 2. The system is very popular due to its significance as the centre of the galaxy, and is a common destination for explorers.
Sagittarius A* is 25,900 light years from Sol. It will take roughly 700 jumps to reach the system with a 35-40ly jump range. The record time for reaching Sagittarius A* is around 8-9 hours of nonstop play and not exploring the systems on the way there. Normally, a voyage to Sagittarius A* and back will take a few weeks to several months, depending on an explorer's pace.
A Guide to Getting There
A voyage to Sagittarius A* and back is not easy - in fact, it is sometimes said to be quite dangerous, but if you ping every system with your Discovery Scanner and explore the ones that look valuable, it can be extremely profitable - you can make several tens of millions from a Sagittarius A* trip.
The Right Stuff
If you want to set off on the journey, you need to be equipped properly:
- An exploration ship - you can't go exploring without having a ship meant for it! Diamondback Explorers are particularly recommended for exploration due to their low cost (2 million credits) and very high maximum jump range (34ly). Asp Explorers have a higher jump range at 37ly, but they are much more expensive at a price of 6 million credits. Anacondas are capable of reaching up to 40ly, but it is extremely expensive. Shorter voyages to other locations like the Orion Nebula can be accomplished in a Cobra MkIII or a Hauler, however.
- Advanced Discovery Scanner - most systems, especially systems with hot, white stars, will have objects that are over 1,000 light-seconds away from the star and will not be detected with an Intermediate or Basic scanner.
- Detailed Surface Scanner - Detailed surface scans will maximise the amount of credits you can get by scanning objects.
- Class D modules, except Frame Shift Drive (FSD) - Having Class D modules will increase your jump range, but your FSD must be the best it can possibly be. The best FSDs cost around 4-5 million credits. By the way, if you get worried downgrading your modules to Class D, don't. You don't actually need anything other than Class D (Except your FSD, of course), including Life Support, Power Plant, and Thrusters. Installing an A-rated smaller Power Plant in some cases might be preferable to a D-rated larger one, due to higher heat efficiency which will make scooping stars a lot easier.
- Fuel Scoop - there are no stations on the way to Sagittarius A*, which means you'll have to fly into a star's corona to refill your fuel tank. Equip the best one you can afford, you don't want to spend more time next to the star than you absolutely need to.
- Bringing weapons and most utility modules is not recommended! There will probably be no-one around to attack you while exploring, and having weapons or utility slots on board will decrease your jump range. The only utility modules that would be of any use are heat-sinks and shield boosters.
- Shields are useful for preventing damage when landing on planets and for the occasional pirate on return to civilization. Also useful for protection from players who occasionally hang around Sagittarius A* preying on unprotected explorers.
- Auto Field-Maintenance Units are handy to have but they're not essential. Your modules will deteriorate over time and it's likely you will warp into a not-nice location along the way. They don't reduce your jump range.
Patience is Key
Sagittarius A* isn't exactly a walk down the street - it's 25,900 light years away from sol. You read that right - Twenty-five thousand light years from Sol. You won't be able to plop yourself in the seat of an Asp Explorer, hop on over to the centre of the galaxy, and get back to Earth in time for tea at grandma's. It takes, at the absolute minimum, 8 hours to get there. That's not an awfully long time, but remember that the guy that got there in 8 hours did literally nothing else but get to his destination, and 8 hours is just the time it took to get there, and it's unknown how long he spent getting back to Sol.
If you want a profitable voyage, you'll need both time and patience and you must be able to handle being away from civilisation for a few weeks of playing until you get to the core where it's likely you'll meet up with other visiting explorers.
Know What You Can Scoop
Not every star is scoopable - only 7 star types are scoopable:
- Red Dwarf Stars (M)
- Orange Dwarf Stars (K)
- Yellow Dwarf Stars (G)
- Yellow-White Dwarf Stars (F)
- Blue Main Sequence Stars (A, B and O)
The sequence can be remembered with the phrase, "Oh Be A Fine Girl, Kiss Me!" or simply "KGB Foam". Be aware that T-Tauri stars are often mistaken for normal stars, as they look exactly the same - but you can tell if it's a T-Tauri star if you get into fuel scooping range and nothing happens. It will also show that it's a T-Tauri star on the system map. Be aware that sometimes you will stumble into massive swathes of space that are full of T-Tauri stars and you might run low on Fuel while inside. If this happens, search for the nearest scoopable star or if there are none nearby and you're close enough to inhabited space (<1,000ly), you can get someone with Fuel Transfer Drone to help out.
Running out of fuel in the middle of a voyage is the worst thing that can happen to an explorer - without fuel, you can't make jumps, your modules will run out of power, and you'll be left to die. Unless the fuel rats manage to save you.
System Layout
- Sagittarius A*
- Sagittarius A*
- Source 2
Notes
- It's important to note the distinction between Sgr A and Sgr A*. The latter refers to the supermassive black hole itself, whereas Sgr A is a complex radio source that Sgr A* is a part of.
- Due to the popularity of the system, caution is advised in Open Play as gankers may be waiting to assault unarmed explorers going to the system.
- Many explorers have pleaded to have a special community goal to colonise the system and build Starports there.
- On 18/02/16 Sagittarius A* became the first location where the theoretical instance cap was broken with over 50 player ships in the same visible space. Soon after this record was again broken with 101 players recorded.
- The maximum surface scan range for Sagittarius A* is 144,278 Ls.[1][2]
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