Character sheets and references
INARA is a great web resource that also connects to your game profile and displays information about your own character, achievements, and progress.
You should definitely have an Inara profile! Added benefits include using the Inara API to share your character data with other 3rd party resources.
EDSM (Elite Dangerous Star Map) is a community effort to store and calculate systems coordinates around the Elite: Dangerous Galaxy. It can also be a lot easier to look at when it comes to digestible data about your character (if connected) and the game. They also have a great codex to view sections of the galaxy. Ask CMDR Robrogan if you want more info about his personal favorite.
Comparing system info for Alpha Centauri on EDSM (left) and INARA (right). Inara seems to have more practical data points like current fleet carriers and nearby systems, but EDSM is Explorer-friendly with bigger picture story and galaxy map view.
Search engines
General reference
EDDB is your Google in the galaxy. If you’re looking for a station that’s selling a specific part or a ship, you can search on EDDB. If you want to see the nearest anything, EDDB will connect you. It’s really great for getting from A to B, while the other resources are useful for research and sharing.
Save your eyes, set it to dark mode!
Mining
EDtools seems to be reliable and straight to the point for looking up hot spots for mining, or other specific resources. Just put in your current system and it’ll find the highest value nearest to you.
Points (and items) of Interest
Elite Dangerous Utilities seems to have a lot more options to search for, than your general mining tool. For example, the Interesting star systems category with “Canyon runs, good trading systems, interesting explorer systems, Hi-G planetary landing challenge systems, alien crash sites/ruins, far out stations.” You can also search for Thargoid Barnicles, or Stellar Phenomena!
Highly recommend scrolling down to the “Handy Images” section for great visual such as this SRV Flying Basics poster.
New CMDRs Welcome Pack
Someone has put together a rather handy visual reference all about the UI and much much more. WordPress supports embedding the gallery here but I recommend you click through to see the large images.
Immersion
Okay so there are a lot of great toys and upgrades for getting that deep space immersion. Most of it costs money, but hey if you want to check them out, here ya go:
Voice Commands (aka Voice Attack)
Alpha-Orbital (for voice attack)
Voice packs – holy shit these sound cool