star wars - Can ships be tracked and chased through hyperspace?

In Rogue One,

Vader arrives at the battle and witnesses the escape of the Tantive IV into hyperspace.

At the beginning of A New Hope, we see Vader's ship chasing the Tantive IV, eventually overpowering it. How was Vader able to find the Tantive IV? Presumably through some method of tracking the ship through hyperspace, but this raises more questions:

• If ships can be tracked through hyperspace, why do the Imperials need to place a tracking device on the Falcon?


• Why aren't Rebels chased through hyperspace more often? (E.g. after successfully destroying both Death Stars, or after practically any engagement in the SW:Rebels show)


• Does Vader himself use unconventional means to locate the Tantive IV?

So my question is thus: Can ships be tracked and chased through hyperspace without the use of a planted tracker or Force shenanigans?

Answer

Yes, they can, if they have an exit vector.

In ESB, after the Falcon disappears, Vader commands Admiral Piett to:

Calculate every possible destination along their last know trajectory

Vader clearly cares about what their last trajectory is as well and believes he can find possible destinations from that information.

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If ships can be tracked through hyperspace, why do the Imperials need to place a tracking device on the Falcon?

Imagine that Leia had been smart enough to tell Han "hey by the way they probably will try to track us, maybe we should make some decoy jumps/stops first?"

Suddenly, any visual track through hyperspace becomes worthless.

Can ships be tracked and chased through hyperspace without the use of a planted tracker or Force shenanigans?

Yes. This happens elsewhere in the Star Wars universe. For example, after the Vader example above, Fett tracks Han to Cloud City this way by lingering after all Imperial ships leave, we see him observing Han's exit vector and the Imperials/Fett immediately head to Cloud City and in fact arrive before Han.

It's pretty clear that Fett got enough information from the Falcon's lightspeed jump to identify his target location well enough to tell Darth Vader, "Han Solo will be on Bespin." Given Fett's reputation, it seems unlikely he would tell Vader this on a whim or speculation.

Keep in mind that if you know the precise exit vector of a ship there are fairly few planets that would be feasible destinations, assuming you make a direct trip.

Why aren't Rebels chased through hyperspace more often?

Generally, it's good tactics to make hit/run from a temporary staging point. This entirely negates any advantage of following a hyperspace jump (especially if the Rebels use a deep space rendezvous point, like at the end of ESB).

Interestingly, Leia seems involved in nearly all "track from exit vector" situations in Star Wars... so... maybe because they didn't involve Leia most of the time? ;-)