Distance between Hoth and Dagobah

I'm sure this is something of an old chestnut, but re-watching ESB, it occurred to me that if the X-Wing doesn't have a hyperdrive, Hoth and Dagobah can't be that far from each other.

Similarly, because the Millennium Falcon's hyperdrive is out of action, not can the distance between Hoth and Bespin be that great.

Just how fast can an X-Wing go? Is it the case that hyperdrives get you faster than light speed, but smaller craft can go at near light speed?

Or is this one of those things that it's best not to worry about?

 

I think the X-Wing does have a hyperdrive, I'm sure I read that somewhere.

 

X-Wings do have hyperdrive. They jump to hyperspace with the rest of the fleet in ROTJ. We just never see Luke jump into hyperspace in ESB, but I bet he had to.

I think I remember reading that the limitations are not so much hyperspace speeds, but being able to store the coordinates for hyperspace jumps. One of the reasons the rebel pilots have R2 droids with them is to calculate and execute jumps to hyperspace. Bigger ships like the Falcon, Star Destroyers, etc. have large computers on board that perform that function and can store tons of jump coordinates.

 

Ah, fair enough. That'll teach me for posting before re-watching ROTJ. Thanks for putting me straight.

That just leaves Bespin. Is it the case that Bespin's pretty close to Hoth, and the Millennium Falcon can go really fast even without its hyperdrive? Or have I overlooked something else?

 

I think the suggestion was that it took a while to get there on sublight engines.

"Bespin's pretty far, but I think we can make it" (Han Solo)

That ties well with Luke's training -- it took a while as well.

 

^Bingo! We can surmise that Luke's training took weeks, maybe even months to be completed, so it would seem that it took the Falcon a good while to make it from Hoth to Bespin (although they'd still be moving INCREDIBLY fast by our standards to make it to any other solar system that quickly).

 

Star Wars Fact Files did a galactic map with one of the early issues. On the map is a Galactic Gazetteer, listing the journey times between some of the familiar planets of the OT. All times are for a ship with a Class 1 hyperdrive (typical military ship).
Note that D=days, H=hours.

Hoth-Dagobah: 3 D 17 H
Hoth-Bespin: 4 H
Dagobah-Bespin: 1 D 3 H

It does point out that the times given are for direct journeys system to system.

 

And thus can I rest easy. Many thanks to you all for clearing the fog from my tired old mind.

 

Can you imagine sitting in a one-man fighter for all that time? Holy cow, what did Luke do to entertain himself? Discuss philosophy with Artoo? Sleep? Play video games on his console? And how did he avoid cramps and saddle sores?

 

So what that chart is saying is that Han and Leia were on their way to Bespin well before Luke reached Dagobah. Interesting.

L8r

 

RogueScribner, if I understand the chart correctly, those times are for ships with a working hyperdrive, which doesn't describe the Millennium Falcon at this time. The chart does confirm, however, that Bespin and Hoth are (in galactic terms) pretty close.

 

Exactly.

Hoth-Dagobah: 3 D 17 H
Hoth-Bespin: 4 H
Dagobah-Bespin: 1 D 3 H

To get from Hoth to Dagobah it would have taken Luke nearly 4 days. I doubt the asteroid sequence, along with the Falcon on the Star Destroyer stuff took as long. Two days tops. So Han and Leia were on their way to Bespin before Luke reached Dagobah. Consequently, Luke probably left Dagobah before Han and Leia ever reached Bespin.

L8r

 

Bingo! We can surmise that Luke's training took weeks, maybe even months to be completed

I can see a couple of weeks, but I honestly don't think it took months for Luke's training.

 

RogueScribner, I understand your point now. Nice one!

 

I could see the Falcon spending more time in the asteroid field that it feels like in the film -- firstly, we don't know how long they spent in the cave/space slug. I would surmise that it could have been as long as a day, given that the Empire had to have time to decide their location and then organize bombing runs on the asteroid. The gang on the Falcon seemed pretty settled in inside the cave.

Secondly, they could have spent a considerable amount of time -- at least a few hours -- attached to the back of the Star Destroyer. Several things would have had to happen between the Falcon disappearing and the fleet jumping to hyperspace: First, Captain Needa had to meet with Vader and have his apology accepted, which would have taken at least an hour, and then Piett alerted all commands to deploy the fleet. I dunno about you, but I would imagine a fleet of that size all breaking up and deploying in different directions would have taken a while to coordinate and calculate.

The real question is, why didn't they just send a few TIEs to fly around back of the Avenger?

 

If you wanna compare the distances, check out the maps at this site.

 

I would surmise that it could have been as long as a day,

Secondly, they could have spent a considerable amount of time -- at least a few hours -- attached to the back of the Star Destroyer.

So you agree with me that is probably 2 days? Okay.

L8r