Hear The April 8 Solar Eclipse When Vision Issues Prevent Seeing It

ACROSS AMERICA — Even with the highest quality eclipse glasses, it won’t be safe for everyone to watch on April 8 as the moon slides between the sun and Earth and turns daytime to dusk along a ribbon of North America.

For people whose vision impairments prevent watching the 2024 Great American Eclipse, a device called LightSound developed by astronomers at Harvard University offers a novel way to experience it through sound. The device uses a technology called sonification, which converts light intensity to musical sounds.

As the sun dims, the musical tone changes, from a piping flute representing the bright pre-eclipse light to a clarinet signaling the beginning of a partial eclipse to the soft clicking sounds during totality. A sound clip is on the project website.

The LightSound Project has received funding to build and place 800 of the devices in schools for the blind, museums and other places in the path of totality, which stretches from Texas to Maine, and also in areas experiencing only partial totality. The project website has a map of locations where the devices are already in place, and more will be added.

“We’re kind of targeting anyone that’s holding an event, right?” astronomer Allyson Bierylam, who oversees the lab at Harvard University, told Vermont Public Radio. “We want to make sure events are accessible if someone shows up and wants to have a listening section or a blind or low-vision person wants to experience it that way.”

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People who don’t have visual impairments can use LightSound as another way to experience the phenomenon, Bierylam said.

The cellphone-sized device, which was developed as a prototype for the 2017 total solar eclipse, can be attached to headphones or to a speaker to project the sound for a group. It is powered by a 9-volt rechargeable battery or by connecting to a laptop via USB.

The device can also be used as an educational tool before events when describing eclipse phenomena, according to the website.

In 2017, the project placed three devices in viewing locations along the eclipse path, one in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and two in Kentucky at Moorhead State University and the Kentucky School for the Blind.

The devices were fine-tuned for the 2019 South American Eclipse, and 20 were distributed in Chile and Argentina. More refinements have been made since, and LightSound was used in the International Astronomical Union’s traveling Inspiring Stars exhibition, which visited a host of countries worldwide.

Funding for the LightSound Project is provided by the International Astronomical Union, the American Astronomical Society, the National Science Foundation and the Simon’s Foundation.

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