Charura, I take my handle from the "Wacky Races" and "Dastardly and Muttley" character, yes. I have done ever since a DEC sales rep used it because I had a tendency to mutter when unsure of myself. It was an excellent encouragement: I don't mutter any more and I'm usually sure of my position

The
Guild of Greeters walkthrough (Spoilers!) is one place that describes Minkata as a training age for Surveyors. I read up on Minkata before making the post at the start of the thread.
manloc, the reference is to
the old song by America. Although it is also true that the Horsehead Nebula is in Orion and close to the belt from our terrestrial point of view.
tommyap, the sky colours vary between day and night: in the daytime the bright sunlight scatters off the dust in the air to produce a red cast to the sky around the horizon. In the night, the wind seems to be less so there is less dust flying, and there is much less light, only starlight, no moons. So colour vision is pretty much shut down, and everything is blue-grey.