Does anyone have any experience home brewing a radio telescope? I'd really like to make one myself, both because it seems fun and challenging, and because it would probably be cheaper than buying one of there are any consumer grade radio scopes. I'm aware of some tutorials online, and one concern that I have is that many of them are intended to output data to software. I'd like to convert the signal into something audible, so that people can actually hear the emissions. The three targets I have in mind are: the sun, Jupiter (like the JOVE project), and hydrogen emission frequencies from nebulae. Ultimately, my goal is public outreach and education rather than amateur research.

I have next to no experience working with radio anything except old AM/FM receivers and walkies. I also know next to nothing about how radio telescopes work, so if you have a particularly good resource besides googling it, I'd be greatly obliged. My questions are: did you find building/using the telescope difficult or expensive? Did you find that it was worthwhile / would you do it again? And what advice do you have for someone looking at it for public outreach?

Hey everyone! I'm putting on stargazing classes in my city with the help of the city parks dept. It involves lugging out 12" dob (we mostly hang out ~120x mag, but I have plans to really juice the magnification if we get small classes and good seeing), some binoculars, and a green laser pointer. I just did the first one last night, and I found it to be a hugely rewarding experience. Unfortunately, the class was a bit on the smaller side and not asking too many questions (I think because it was cold AF for California), and I found the energy kind of flagging halfway through. My plan has been to teach the basics of star finding, telescope use, etc. and follow the Astronomical League's Urban Stargazing program (I want to help folks get certified if they're interested). I was wondering if anyone else has done any kind of astronomy public outreach and if they had any advice to help keep the engagement up when folks are taking turns peeking through the scope. In case you might be wondering, it's not a GOTO or PUSH TO scope, I personally find that there's a bit of magic in manually slewing the scope, but it does unfortunately mean that I spend extra time bringing the scope back on target between students using it.

We ended up with probably a dozen participants, with most coming and going within about 20 mins out of the hour. Again, I think the weather was a big part of it, but I was really hoping they would find it worth it to stay. We started the night off viewing Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, and Venus, (not part of the urban stargazing program, but I wanted to include them), and moved on to showing the Pleiades and Hyades through low mag binoculars, and then on to the Orion Nebula and Theta Orionis, and finally Gamma Andromedae. Then, most people started to dip and we just kind of did requests until the end of class. Maybe I'm just enough of a dork that it would have kept me around in spite of the weather, but I worry that it wasn't interesting enough. Any advice would be appreciated.

Not my work, found it on YouTube and enjoyed this artist's work, so I thought I'd show my appreciation by sharing. Reminds me of the old school country vibes before it got taken over by make believe patriots.

Hey, so, I was hoping someone could break down the strategy or rationale behind team Biden's current messaging? Cards on the table, I plan on voting for him in the general election and primary, but the Biden camp's messaging seems insane to me. I know a single person irl who's doing well financially right now, everyone else is feeling the pain. The messaging so far seems to be (and please correct me if I'm wrong): everything is fine actually, and we should all be praising him, and it doesn't matter if you disagree because the other guy is Hitler. It just comes across as super disconnected, I don't know any IRL left/Dem voters that resonate with it, and it honestly reminds me of the general vibe of the HRC campaign from 16. This election is too important to fuck up, so this messaging has got me concerned. Can someone explain how this is supposed to win Biden the election?

Yerba Santa is actually several closely related annual plant species native to California and Oregon. In my personal experience, Yerba Santa can frequently be found along roadsides and in disturbed soils in the Sierra Nevadas, but CalScape suggests that they're mainly found in the mountains around SoCal and along the Pacific side of the Diablo range. The leaves are tough and leathery with a rich, dark green coloration on top and a fuzzy underside that looks much paler. The plant can be a little unpleasant to handle due to the sticky resin it secretes. The leaves are long and toothed, and grow off of stems that don't branch. I've never seen a single yerba Santa plant by itself, it almost always grows in small, dense clusters like you see in the picture. Yerba Santa also puts off clusters of trumpet-like purple-white flowers from the top that are used by native butterflies, but I haven't seen this in person.

Multiple sources report the medicinal use of Yerba Santa by both First Nations peoples (Miwuks and Yokuts to name a few) as well as Spanish settlers to treat a variety of remedies. As bitter as the plant is (also, tar is another foraging red flag for me; where there's tar, I usually expect that there's some pretty bioactive compounds like Nicotine, and that's a recipe for a bad time), I can't help but imagine that there's probably some compounds in it that might not be great to put in your body all the time, so I highly recommend doing your own research here. Also, a lot of the information about the supposed medicinal qualities seems really apocryphal and like it's just something that people repeat but never verify; I'd want to follow up with some people who have real experience with this plant before just going and chewing on it. For animals, Yerba Santa provides food for butterflies, native bees, and birds in the form of nectar and seeds, and has been documented as a forage of last resort by native blacktail deer when most other plants have already died or gone dormant. Additionally, Yerba Santa has been documented as being useful for stabilizing disturbed or scorched soils. There's a few weeds that could conceivably appear similar to Yerba Santa due to their habit of growing as a cluster of dense, non-branching stalks, but the tell I would suggest is the leaves. Most weeds that have similar growth habits won't have the same thick, robust, tar-covered leaves that Yerba Santa has, and won't have the trumpet-like flowers. The most serious lookalike, imo, is Oleander. Oleander is a woody shrub that gets much larger than Yerba Santa, but has similar-looking, rich dark-green, tarry leaves with trumpet-like flowers. OLEANDER IS VERY POISONOUS AND WILL KILL YOU IF CONSUMED. Oleander is not native, and is widely used as an ornamental throughout California. As a rule of thumb, if it's woody OR big OR looks like it's supposed to be there, it's Oleander.

Yerba Santa varies in hardiness. Like many California natives, it is wholly unafraid of summer sun; though most natives do fine with at least a little shade in the day, Yerba Santa is beyond such weakness. Some species of Yerba Santa can grow quite aggressively in disturbed soils, while others in the Santa Barbara region are seriously endangered. If you want to get your hands on this plant, I'd advise against harvesting Yerba Santa from the wilderness for several reasons:

• you could be harvesting an abandoned Oleander plant, and Oleander will kill you if consumed.

• you might accidentally be harvesting one of the endangered members of the species, which is not only unethical but likely illegal.

• Yerba Santa ain't no slouch, that plant is doing work where it is, holding the disturbed soil together and providing forage for wild animals through parts of the year when forage is scarce. You're hurting a lot of things that depend on that plant by taking it out of the ecology.

Instead, I'd strongly recommend getting some seeds from a reputable source and trying to grow some from seed.

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Chenopodium Album, also known as Goosefoot, Pigweed, or Lambsquarters, is a member of the amaranth family that has become endemic to much of California up to 5900 ft in elevation. It's originally native to Europe and Asia, where it has been known to be grown as a food crop for people and livestock.

Lambsquarters' distinguishing features include soft, arrowhead-shaped, gently toothed, dark green foliage that appears silvery-gray on the underside of the leaf; the leaves also can have a fine, white powdery substance dusting their surfaces; the plant is an annual that has a large, shrub-like growth habit that I've seen grow to roughly seven feet high under good conditions, though most top out around four of five feet; it has strong stems that, as the plant ages, get streaked with purple and dry to a woody texture when the plant has died; in the late summer and early fall, the plant manifests inflorescences from which very small, black seeds will eventually fall.* The plant prefers disturbed soil, and is a common sight in agricultural and untended urban settings.

*Some sources indicate that Lambsquarters can start flowering in May. I have spent a lot of time around these plants and I can't remember ever having seen that, but it's possibly down to regional variance.

Like many other invasive species endemic to California, Lambsquarters is extremely drought tolerant. This is probably one of the more aesthetically pleasing endemic invaders come August or July, as it's one of the few remaining wild plants that appears healthy, happy, and green. I have some experience foraging Lambsquarters; its flavor is just sort of an unimpressive green flavor, though the leaf has a nice bite. Apparently, the leaves are very high in protein, and I think it'd probably do swell in a soup (though, again, I'd recommend boiling the leaves in a change of water first, as some sources suggest that Lambsquarters has oxalates that'll mess you up over the long run). I have no experience using the seeds as a food source, but it seems fairly straightforward, winnowing aside. The seeds are extraordinarily small and likely won't lend themselves to milling, but would probably make for a good supplementary grain to a porridge or something like that.

So, how bad is Lambsquarters?

Well, the California Invasive Plant Council doesn't have a page dedicated to Lambsquarters. That said, it has been known to be a reservoir of viruses for crop species also in the Amaranth family. It's likely that Lambsquarters, like the other invaders from the Amaranth family, are both practically impossible to be rid of while also being generally self-limiting, in particular given the plant's preference for disturbed soils.

Hello, everyone!

I'm going to start profile common invasive species to the central valley to help people recognize them, know which are good, bad, and ugly, and distinguish them from true natives. I'm starting with a special guest the central valley drivers will soon be getting re-acquainted with: the Tumbleweed (Salsola sp.). The tumbleweed, also known as Russian Thistle, was first introduced by Russian immigrants to the Dakotas in the late 1800s. The plant spread aggressively, and was in California before the turn of the century.

In terms of physical characteristics, Salsolas tend to have a darker, olive green appearance, with the larger stalks taking on purple-hued streaks later in the season. The leaves are sort of clusters of feathery spines (with some not so feathery spines mixed in for good measure). Later in their growth season, they have small, purple-hued flower like structures (though I don't think they're true flowers) at the nodes. They have an erect habit that forms a small, oblong sphere of a bush, about two to three foot high (there's a lot of variety there, but I'd say that about two foot is average) and a little wider than it is tall by the end of the growing season.

Salsolas are hardy plants that thrive in disturbed souls and hot, dry conditions. In fact, they have a root structure that's designed to release the stalk of the plant and let it tumble once it comes into contact with water, which is why you generally start seeing them jump out in front of traffic around the time of the first rains. Salsolas are safe to eat in small quantities, and I have some personal experience with this. You really only want the new growth from very young plants, anything else is going to be tough as boots and half as appetizing (nevermind the spines). Young plants have smaller, softer spines and the new growth tastes of spinach when boiled (which is how I prepare it, I never eat it raw. As I recall, it has some quantity of oxalic acid in it that will wreck your kidneys with enough exposure, boiling removes the oxalic acid). I'm not personally fond of foraging Salsolas because their preference for disturbed soils generally means a high likelihood that they've been exposed to some pretty nasty stuff, and they're really only acceptable for cooking while the plants are less than a month old.

So, how bad are tumbleweeds?

Well, as far as I can tell, in the way of invasive plants, you can do a whole lot worse than tumbleweeds. According to the California Invasive Plant Council, Salsolas actually seem to help native grasses by stabilizing disturbed soil and introducing phosphorus. They're not very competitive, and rarely dominate anywhere long term. In fact, they note that Salsolas tend to be the first thing that will grow in disturbed soil, and are usually followed and eventually squeezed out by other plants and grasses that benefit off the shelter, phosphorus, and stabilized soil that the Salsola provides. Additionally, native animal species (in particular small lizards and reptiles) have been observed to use the Salsola for both shelter and hunting grounds. Salsolas don't have a significant impact on ecology in terms of fire risk or water patterns, either. Probably the worst thing about them is that they can be kind of a pain in the butt for humans when they swarm streets or highways or pile up on fences.

I'm considering planting some Salsolas in my back yard to try and stabilize the loose soil this winter, and I'll cut them back once other plants start to take over.

Kanye is getting less and less excited as the ACE rail extension to Merced gets more and more delayed. I reckon they're doing it like this to tie in to the HSR station, but come on, man.

This is a list of reputable brands, seed dealers, and nurseries for acquiring native plants, both online and offline. If you'd like to add one to the list, just post it below, and I'd appreciate a little blurb about your experience with them or why you find them reputable.

The list is currently pretty sparse, but with everybody's help, we can make a great list!

Nurseries

Online

Offline

SoCal

NorCal

Bay Area

Central Valley

Sierra Nevada

Mariposa

Creekside Nursery

Address: 5047 Stroming Rd, Mariposa, CA 95338

Phone: (209) 742-5107

Web: https://www.creeksidemariposa.com/

Blurb: Small nursery, literally by Mariposa creek. Known to carry several native shrubs including Ceanothus sp. and California Rose, as well as seeds for California Poppies.

Brands

Online

Offline

SoCal

NorCal

Bay Area

Central Valley

Sierra Nevada

Seed Dealers

Online

Offline

SoCal

NorCal

Bay Area

Central Valley

Sierra Nevada

Make sure you're planting a native species for your area first! Milkweeds have a very wide range, and there's been issues with tropical milkweeds being planted here in California, since they don't go dormant during the fall and winter. That means that:

• Along the coast, they're more likely to be exposed to high levels of moisture that will promote disease growth that can be spread to Monarchs

• Monarchs might lay their eggs on the non-dormant plants instead of migrating, which will likely cause the caterpillars to die, being out of season.

California has some 15 species of milkweed that are native, with one of the more common being the narrowleaf milkweed. You can buy seeds for narrowleaf milkweed online, and now's the time to do it if you plan on directly sowing the seeds, since they need to get cold in order to germinate reliably.

Some fast facts about milkweed:

-It's a perennial, and once established will continue to spread through tubers.

-It's very drought tolerant once established

-The flowers are said to be highly fragrant and are known to draw in a lot of pollinator species besides monarchs.