As far as I understand it, you can zoom out to the level of the current system. You can fly beyond that, but your NAV map is limited to those dimensions of a system. You can however, click on the Quandrant map button to see a higher level overview of the systems.
There is also a
Strategy guide for Evochron Renegades that covers a lot of information applicable to Evochron Legends, so its worth a read as well.
To add to what Warsign has already posted, your hardpoints are the areas on your craft where you can mount and fire missiles from. Some ship hulls have only a limited number, I think your starting ship has 4, and larger more expensive hulls have 8. You can fill these hardpoints with different missiles, by buying them at a station, or you can equip something like the Excalibur missile pack, which fits in the first hardpoint, and fires a volley of 8 renewable missiles. You do need the full 8 hardpoints to equip and use the Excalibur missile pack.
A question I'd like to add to the hardpoint debate, is with an Excalibur missile pack installed, can you also add other custom missiles to your loadout, or does the Excalibur use all 8 slots, even though its only displayed in the top one?
thanks
