Lol, for me, once I get past 20 star systems my head starts to swim form the RT chaos. Too much is going on for me to follow. That and I do not use the event box, so I miss a lot of stuff. I REALLY miss the you've got mail ability of SA.
Ah, I think that explains why we have a different view. I don't use the real time option because too much happens too fast and I have considered removing it. I use the system map increment buttons and just click the increments one at a time (effectively turn-based). If I want to advance by a day I just click the 1 Day button. The game advances by one day and then pauses, giving me time to check events etc. If nothing has happened, I click 1 day again and then check what happened in the next increment. When a lot of things are happening at once I will use shorter increments, right down to 5 seconds during combat. Apart from the very early versions of the game, I have never used the Time Control window or the real-time option.
You really need to use the Events window though. That is the heart of the game. As events happen, you can click on them and Aurora will centre on the location of the event.
Steve