***ENTRY&& 8.27.2024*** You’re listening to the Sleeping Stargazer podcast, brought to you by the Syncopation Bay Astronomical Societal Institute. My name is Blair, and I’ll be your guide through the skies as we walk through the latest events and upcoming forecasts. Today is August 27th, 2024. First up is our coverage of transmissions of the Greater Wellerfield region, appearing from a yet-unknown spatial point, a planet called Magna, far east of this world. We’ve been fortunate to have received clear signals between us and our ambassadors in the region over the course of this week. Activity of our translated V-band communications have been relatively normal. Our ambassador informed us of a major Folkeran holiday centering around the small town of Wiltonhoken (will-ten-hough-ken). The Folkeran calendar splits between the four seasons of the year; there are 90 days in each season for a total of 360. On Summer-85 each year, for a brief period when the sun has just begun to return from its midday peak, the townspeople, gathered in one of its four central park squares, drink a glass of what our ambassador described to us as brinewater and perches the ceremonial flag to begin the season of perhaps Wiltonhoken’s famous export, the sport of charra (char-rah). Charra is an easy game to transmit over the airwaves, at least in the binary codings which make up our transmissions. From what we’ve been able to gather, the rules are fairly straightforward: each team has five members throwing an octagonal ball at one another. If the team can make it to their respective zone within three throws, a circle towards the ends of the field, they gain three points, with all other times they make the zone worth one. Games are two halves long, with a small intermission in between. What is less straightforward is the dimensions in which the games are played. The Folkeran Charra League does not distinguish the size of the field or its playing surface, and the point circles, while being required to be at least ten tols in length (roughly equivalent to 15 meters), can be larger if the team chooses, so long as the goals are equal. In Folker, the teams take advantage of these rules, and take hometown pride in the variations of their field. The capital of Tomfolken, for example, plays in a marshy region to symbolize the nearby wetlands that surround the settlement area. In more northern regions, such as the city of Maikonin (mai-koh-nen), where the cooler air creates harsher winters, the fields tend to be outdoors with small circles, emphasizing a defensive strategy. Southern regions, meanwhile, such as the city of Skytown, emphasize shorter fields with large, sandy circles, with scoring galore. Whatever your preference, however, most experts consider the field at Wiltonkohen to be the crown jewel of charra. Played on tufted native field grass, the field features thirty-five-tol circles and a field shape that forms itself into a sideways diamond, encouraging the players to utilize making plays from the sides and gives them the guardrails to make acrobatic moves. Wiltonhoken’s club is considered one of the best in Folker, and the townspeople drink their glass to its biggest star, Jermine-27 (jer-mine-two-seven) Nin-*B (nin-star-bee), who plays the primarily throwing position of midtar. Nin-*B threw for over 25 points a game last season, a near-record. In the center of this field, where many townsfolk have gathered with him, he takes a mighty glass of brinewater to his lips, and, on the cheer of his fans, drinks it all in one go. Our ambassador broadcasts from Tomfolken, the capital of the nation of Folker, in the world known as Magna. In Tomfolken, the weather for the upcoming period is expected to continue to be warm, and somewhat humid. As for Syncopation Bay, the next few days are expected to be sunny, and slightly cooler than usual for the summer after some stifling heats, with highs in the 70s and low 80s, and lows in the low 60s. As for space weather, a geomagnetic storm was picked up yesterday in the G2 range, and the solar skies are expected to continue to be active in the coming week. The following forecast for HF radio interference on Earth is as follows: Class R1 - 55% Class R2 - 55% Class R3 - 10% The forecast for expected solar radiation storms impacting Earth is as follows: Class S1 - 10% The forecast for expected geomagnetic storms impacting Earth is as follows: Class G1 - 0% The forecast for HF radio interference in Greater Wellerfield is as follows: Class R1-W - 80% Class R2-W - 60% Class R3-W - 10% The forecast for expected solar radiation storms impacting Greater Wellerfield is as follows: Class S1-W - 35% The forecast for expected geomagnetic storms impacting Greater Wellfield is as follows: Class G1-W - 10% The following requests to ambassadors will be undertaken by Syncopation Bay over the course of this week: Continued nderstanding of Folkeran urban planning High-waste reports for pink rain sediments in the northern areas of Folker A world map of Magna encoded in binary, with specifications adherent to specific codings and a preference for geographical and terrain mapping prior to political maps Until next time, this is Blair, watching the skies on behalf of the Syncopation Bay Astronomical Societal Institute. Sleep well. ***ENTRY&& 8.18.2024*** You’re listening to the Sleepy Stargazer podcast, brought to you by the Syncopation Bay Astronomical Societal Institute. My name is Blair, and I’ll be your guide through the skies as we walk through the latest events and upcoming forecasts. First up is our coverage of transmissions of the Greater Wellerfield region, appearing from a yet-unknown spatial point, far east of this world. The translated V-band communications have continued somewhat in the past week, but have been dampened quite a bit by a geomagnetic storm from active region 13664, that caused a high-frequency radio blackout. The past couple of days, however, have been relatively clear. Our ambassador informed us of a new agilati released this past week, originating on the island of Calunisle and with region-wide distribution, titled Menis-X83* (mee-nis ex-eight-three-star.) As this is a new podcast, I should clarify to the audience that while we translate almost all of the transmissions of these communications into a human-readable language, there are a few unique and important words that are best used as loanwords, though for us, there’s still a bit of translation involved to get the right characters. Agilati is one of them, as is the shortened agila; these are short written works, the equivalent of an earthen zine, distributed mainly by paxus, what would be best described as a sort of fax machine. Menis is a non-fictional work that is apparently philosophical in nature; our ambassador describes the work as an attempt to get to a fundamental question about the ethos of the Sudenrange peoples, who live in mountainous enclaves on the western portion of the island. These peoples are not only rural, but they reject much of the modern lifestyle that Calunislers have assumed. Still, there is much written about them in various agilatis, and much of the region holds these peoples in high regards, and seek to incorporate some of their way of life into their day-to-day world. Menis, written by Sudenrange native Akata 2-01B (a-kah-ta two-dash-oh-one-bee), deals mainly with the practice of subsistence and sustainable land development, a much-discussed topic amongst the general population. Akata tells of a story where locals of a nearby city wanted to plant fruit trees called hanbee (hahn-bee), nationally popular and easy to grow. Akata’s mother, a local leader in the community, stood up to city representatives and protested the new growth, which represented potential disease and shock to the native flora and fauna. It was painstaking efforts, but the citypeople eventually relented, and there are currently no hanbee trees that grow in Calunisle forests. But Akata says that there will always be these battles so long as these ideas are propagated. Our ambassador broadcasts from Tomfolken, the capital of the nation of Folker, though it should be noted that what we mean by ‘capital’ would be different than their interpretation, as politics are often done in various cities and localities. In Tomfolken, the weather for the upcoming period is expected to be one of the strongest portions of their warm season; some heavy rain, with a chance for pink, is expected within the next few days. (‘Pink rain’ is a Folkeran phenomenon that is exactly how it’s described, by way of an included element in their rainwater called pinlatum.) As for Syncopation Bay, the next few days are expected to be rainy as well, and slightly cooler than usual for the summer, with highs in the 70s, and lows in the low 60s. The space weather forecast for the coming week, meanwhile, expects minor R1 to R2 radio blackouts, especially late on the 17th as a coronal mass ejection from the 14th arrives towards Earth. The following forecast for HF radio interference on Earth is as follows: Class R1 - 75% Class R2 - 75% Class R3 - 25% The forecast for expected solar radiation storms impacting Earth is as follows: Class S1 - 15% The forecast for expected geomagnetic storms impacting Earth is as follows: Class G1 - 0% The forecast for HF radio interference in Greater Wellerfield is as follows: Class R1-W - 75% Class R2-W - 55% Class R3-W - 20% The forecast for expected solar radiation storms impacting Greater Wellerfield is as follows: Class S1-W - 10% The forecast for expected geomagnetic storms impacting Greater Wellfield is as follows: Class G1-W - 0% The following requests to ambassadors will be undertaken by Syncopation Bay over the course of this week: Understanding of Folkeran urban planning The latest agilati chart produced by the OK-22 (oh-kay two-two) agency, based in the city of Olivia, in the nation of Wellerfield Possible designs for airships, routes of which have been mentioned in passing Until next time, this is Blair, watching the skies on behalf of the Syncopation Bay Astronomical Societal Institute. Sleep well. ***ENTRY&& 9.11.2024*** You’re listening to the Sleeping Stargazer podcast, brought to you by the Syncopation Bay Astronomical Societal Institute. My name is Blair, and I’ll be your guide through the skies as we walk through the latest events and upcoming forecasts. Today is September 11, 2024. First up is our coverage of transmissions of the Greater Wellerfield region, appearing from a yet-unknown spatial point, a planet called Magna, far east of this world. We’ve been fortunate to have received clear signals between us and our Tomfolken brethren, for the most part. Some disruptions that had appeared earlier in the week have since dissipated. In between our various chats about binary code and spatial parameters, one topic that we and our ambassadors often discuss is music. But, therein lies the problem: how do you converse about music with a society that defines it as such that you wouldn’t call it music? Or at least, what most people wouldn’t call music. We finally received our first taste of a Folkeran song in a small snippet transmitted over the V-band airwaves and deciphered via binary. The clip is about twenty seconds long, and for a while, we were unable to decipher if the audio was working correctly, because all we heard was silence. After determining this wasn’t a piece reminiscent of the works of John Cage, we analyzed the audio snippet further. At about the fifteen-second mark, we saw it: a slight bump in the left channel. After amplifying the audio significantly, we could make it out, just barely: a small chirp, at around 1740 hertz. When we reached out to the ambassador about this, they seemed a bit confused, as though we were questioning the very concept of music itself. We decided to share a piece that was sparse but with some significant harmonic changes, a recording of Debussy’s The Snow is Dancing. After sending over the piece, it was some time before we heard from the ambassador again. When we did, we asked repeatedly about the piece, until finally they mentioned that they could hardly listen to it, for it was so noisy and cluttered in tone that it was akin to a dreadful piercing of the earlobe. We have not sent an audio file since. Our ambassador broadcasts from Tomfolken, the capital of the nation of Folker, in the world known as Magna. In Tomfolken, the weather for the upcoming period is expected to become somewhat rainy, and somewhat dewey. The seasons are starting to change to autumn, and a cool breeze front has been starting to show for the past week. As for Syncopation Bay, the next few days are expected to remain sunny and warm, with highs in the 70s and low 80s, and lows in the low 60s. For space weather, a geomagnetic storm was picked up earlier today in the G3 range, and the solar skies are expected to continue to be active in the coming week. The following forecast for HF radio interference on Earth is as follows: Class R1 - 60% Class R2 - 15% Class R3 - 10% The forecast for expected solar radiation storms impacting Earth is as follows: Class S1 - 15% The forecast for expected geomagnetic storms is expected to dwindle in the coming three days. The forecast for HF radio interference in Greater Wellerfield is as follows: Class R1-W - 40% Class R2-W - 10% Class R3-W - 10% The forecast for expected solar radiation storms impacting Greater Wellerfield is as follows: Class S1-W - 10% The forecast for expected geomagnetic storms impacting Greater Wellfield is as follows: Class G1-W - 5% The following requests to ambassadors will be undertaken by Syncopation Bay over the course of this week: Identifying monetary policys of the Sudenisle economist Astora Bee-87 Charting airship maps in the Greater Wellerfield region Fine-tuning the V and K band frequencies within the internal Syncopation Bay servers Until next time, this is Blair, watching the skies on behalf of the Syncopation Bay Astronomical Societal Institute. Sleep well.