Err, you have a race of moles? No one can see the bright giant burning things? I would like some random "wandering" planets that could be mined or have an extreme colonization tech though.

Larsenex,  GalCiv 2 had blind exploration. However, it only referred to knowing where the other races were. If you activated it in the options at the start of the game, you could only see their spheres of influence in areas you had explored.

What you are thinking of is Stellar Cartography. You could only see the stars on your mini-map, but not how many planets they had, if you didn't have that tech.

In GC2, the main map was completely blanked out but the mini-map showed where stars were and also where the other races were.  Choosing blind exploration removed the other races colors from the mini-map.  It seems that in GC3, they've moved the star visibility from the mini map, right onto the main map in the form of those blue dots.  

I really hope they plan on adding a 'galaxy map' that shows the whole galaxy along with all civs borders (with toggle-able info to turn on or off)

These days we are able to find planets from our home planet. It makes me think it is silly to produce a game that takes place over 200 years in the future that is so far behind in technology to what we can do today.

I completely agree, but there are some who like the option of adding difficulty to the game regardless of it's realism. I have known some who try many different things like playing only when they have a toothache, or playing with their mouse upside down.

I kid of course, the game is plenty hard for me with the various difficulty levels without adding any other handicaps, To each their own.

Yea i fired up GC II and the main map had NOTHING on it. It was AWESOME. I say this because the exploration part was great. I know we can look out our telescopes and see the stars and if they have any planets. 

However I remember my GC II games fondly and again exploring NOT knowing where stuff was made their discovery even that much more enjoyable. 

All I am asking for is a toggle. How it was in GC II would be fine.