Ok, I don't want to give away any trade secrets or tips on the best methods to uncover sectors. Just imagine if you had 25 probes, and lined them all up and flew them around the map. Start at one spot, and have them go all the way across all the sectors to the other side of the galaxy.. Imagine how that could work..
It becomes pretty easy to uncover the map. You may lose a couple of probes here and there to black holes, but it really reduces the amount of micromanagement you need to do.
That's my 2 cents..