11th JULY 2517

Today, I sent down a probe to give me some basic information about this planet before I take my ship down manually.  The information it sent back was as follows:

SURFACE GRAVITY: 1.09g
SURFACE TEMPERATURE: 311K
ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION: 67% Nitrogen, 31% Oxygen, 2% Carbon Dioxide
MEAN WIND SPEED: 35 km/h

I have deduced that I can explore without most life-support equipment.  Gravity within tolerable boundaries, as is temperature, the oxygen increase is negligible.  Most qualities listed will just require some getting used to.

Using the probe to explore, I noted that most of the planet seemed to be not exactly a desert, but certainly barren.  Surface colour resembles a dark yellow with brown patches.  The planet seems mostly rocky and dusty, with canyons and mountains.  The skies seem permanently overcast from the dense cloud cover and because of the close proximity of Skeyla to its local star, the clouds appeared to glow with a golden light.  It looked rather beautiful; I shall look forward to seeing it with my own human eyes.

Eventually, my probe arrived upon a lake of liquid water, a rare find indeed.  It had a forest upon the far bank comprised of leafless trees with pale bark.  They were odd creations; their branches curved away from the main trunk like any other tree.  However, they then bent at (what seemed to me at least) to be unnatural ninety degree angles, with some of them even curling round at the tips like springs.

I made my way through the strange forest until I located what seemed to be the primitive village of a sentient species.  The mostly round buildings were primarily made of vegetative matter from the local forest.

The creatures present seemed highly peculiar indeed.  From the safety of the trees, I recorded them for hours.  I have compiled the most accurate list I could to describe their appearance.

Biological Field Notes
Subject: Skeylan

Height: 1.5 metres (roughly)
Skin Colour: Blue/grey
Facial Features:
 Bald
 One large orange eye
 Short trunk rather than mouth and no teeth
 No ears (They seem to be all deaf/mute naturally and communicate with one another by some alien form of sign language)
Body Description:
 Dark orange fur on their chests and forearms
 They wear no clothes and have no obvious sexual organs, they appear to be an asexual species
 Four arms (two main and two supplementary), jointed at the elbow
 Three fingers each on their two main hands, four on their smaller more delicate ones, equalling a total of 14 fingers
 Just two front toes and one rear toe on each foot
 Knees backwards when compared to humans

The exciting presence of life will make this exploration all the more interesting; I shall continue my observations tomorrow.