You can use your mouse to target items in the Starchart. If you see any RED plus symbols, those represent ENEMY vessels. If you click on the red symbol, you can access a scanner to observe the DATA of the enemy ship. You may find out the direction it is traveling in, as well as other details. Many ships travel in GROUPS to hide their numbers for those too lazy to scan the red plus... beware of that. Truly a key tactic in VGA Planets is to be UNSEEN, which can be accomplished by Cloaking (speacial races), or jumping planet to planet, as you will not be seen by another race if you are orbiting a planet he/she does not own or is not orbiting as well.