It's been several days now since I've begun my second long range journey after being forced to abort my previous attempt after taking heat damage only 2,000 LY out. I've learned my lesson since then. Do not attempt space travel when you are tired, falling asleep at the controls will not end well. Luckily I only took modular damage, but didn't want to continue like that since I hadn't gotten very far.
Since my most recent departure I am maybe about 3,500-4,000 LY away. Haven't seen anything of major interest other than a couple of Water Worlds. I have seen a few personal firsts though, like multicolored planets, an enormous crater hidden in the dark side of a planet, and my first landable body that was not a "perfect" sphere. Mostly due to my never getting close enough to view the planets, I'd approach until within detailed scan range, stop, scan, and move on. Those three sights have been enough to make me want to get a closer look more often now though.
I intend to travel the edge of the galaxy, but we will see what happens. I'm also debating if I want to try and reach the broken portions of the Outer Arm from the Perseus Arm, or just continue down towards the end of Perseus and then hop over to the next in line.