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People across the United States will look to the skies on Monday to witness a total solar eclipse. Others will listen to him.
And according to Harvard University astronomers working to turn this rare image into sound, the eclipse will create a symphony.
“We paired the bright light of the sun with the sound of a flute,” said Harvard astronomer Allyson Bieryla. “Then it goes into the middle range, which is a clarinet, and then during totality, it goes down to a kind of low clicking sound, and that clicking slows down even during totality.”
Scientists have designed a box-like device, slightly larger than a cell phone, that converts light into audible tones in a process called sonification. The sounds change depending on the intensity of the light, allowing blind or partially sighted people to follow the progress of the eclipse.
The device is called LightSound, and hundreds of people will be at eclipse viewing events on Monday.
“This view of totality is breathtaking and therefore visual, but that doesn’t mean it’s the only way you can interpret or experience things,” said Bieryla, who runs the LightSound Project. “And someone who is blind needs a different sense to experience it.”
converting light into sound
The idea for LightSound was born during the last total eclipse that occurred in the United States in 2017. Bieryla started the project with astronomer Wanda Díaz-Merced, who experiences blindness and used similar technology to conduct her research. They created three prototypes, one in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and two in Kentucky.
The current version of LightSound is the result of some tweaks and tweaks since those prototypes, but voice acting has always been at the heart of it. Bieryla said the device uses a light sensor to capture data, and in the event of an eclipse, the data is the light intensity. These numbers, which are light intensity values, are then assigned an instrument sound using a MIDI synthesizer card in the device, she said. This allows hues to change as the moon occludes the sun and the Earth darkens, so people who are blind can interact with the eclipse in ways they couldn’t before.
Fast forward to 2024 and the project has grown. Changes made after the 2019 and 2020 total solar eclipses in South America (for example, using a printed circuit board instead of wires) made the device easier to build. Bieryla said that with the help of local communities, the project was able to rapidly increase production. The LightSound team hosts workshops where anyone can learn to assemble a device.
“Instead of producing 20 units a day, we were producing 200 units a day, which was a huge, huge improvement,” Bieryla said, emphasizing that “the community element is what made this project successful.”
He said they produced and distributed about 900 devices for the 2024 eclipse that are headed to sites in Mexico, the U.S. and Canada.
Of the hundreds of devices scattered across the United States, 29 were shipped to Ohio state parks and wildlife habitats on the way to integration. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources partnered with Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities (OOD) to provide LightSound to dozens of eclipse viewing parties.
Bernadetta King, program manager for OOD’s Office of Visual Impairment Services, said people are excited to be fully involved in eclipse events; Instead of being in a separate location, they would be in close proximity to everyone else as the event organizers would plug the device into the speakers.
“Sometimes when you do something better for people with disabilities, you unintentionally make it better for everyone, so why don’t we think of it that way at the beginning?” said the king. “Even people watching the eclipse with glasses hear it and say, ‘Oh, that’s amazing.'”
King, who himself experiences blindness, said that people with visual impairments often feel like they are not in their minds. Devices like LightSound could also be an opportunity to continue improving sonification technology in other ways, he said.
“This is a step forward in opening up an area that has traditionally been ignored when you think about people with blindness and vision impairment,” King said, citing previous applications of sonification in aerospace and other fields of science.
Other inclusive eclipse efforts
If you’re not near an eclipse event featuring LightSound, the American Council of the Blind is hosting a virtual stream of sounds from various devices along the path of totality.
The Eclipse Soundscapes app is another resource for the visually impaired. The project, part of NASA’s Citizen Science initiative, will collect multisensory observations and recordings from people across the country.
In addition to narrative explanations, the app includes a tool that uses vibrations and tones to convey each phase of the eclipse. The project said the vehicle was “designed to let you hear and feel astronomical events.”
Additionally, NASA partnered with the National Park Service and Earth to Sky on events, including a webinar series to prepare interpreters for the event. The space agency said national parks participating in the partnership will have elements for “blind and low-vision children, neurodivergent children, the physically challenged and the hearing impaired” at viewing parties across the country.
As for Bieryla and his crew, there’s always another eclipse somewhere. Once this time is finished they will send LightSounds to the next location. Since his small team can’t produce devices for the entire world, his next goal is to teach people all over the world how to host workshops. He said he hopes initiatives like LightSound will inspire young scientists.
“My hope is that there will be a blind child who experiences this device and says, ‘I want to do astronomy,'” Bieryla said. “We need to have those resources for that student to be successful.”
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