LIGHTSOUND: ACCESSIBILITY AND AWARENESS FOR UPCOMING SOLAR ECLIPSES

Abstract

People from all over the United States (and abroad) flocked to the path of totality to witness the Great American Solar Eclipse in 2017. The sentiment was the same for the 2019 and 2020 South American eclipses that passed through Chile and Argentina. While a total solar eclipse is typically thought of as a striking visual phenomenon, it is not the only way to observe one, and for blind or low vision individuals, having an alternate medium to observe an eclipse is a necessity. LightSound is a low-cost, hand-held device that was originally developed for the 2017 North American eclipse. It has a very high-dynamic range sensor that converts light to sound in a process called sonification. The sound can be output to headphones or to a speaker during an event to make the entire event more accessible while capturing the dimming of the Sun in the form of sound. All documentation and software needed to build and use the LightSound are open source and free for download and modification. As the 2023 and 2024 North American solar eclipses approach, we aim to increase the number of LightSounds across the paths of totality so that the experiences can be more inclusive and accessible. In the astronomy community, we are holding a series of workshops through the American Astronomical Society to train new users to build and use the devices, but we hope to expand to a more general audience by connecting with organizations such as libraries, museums, national parks, girl/boy scouts, and others groups who we can help to build the necessary devices for communities and events in need. In addition to eclipses, the LightSound has exciting potential for use as a teaching tool at both K-12 levels and undergraduate levels and for raising awareness about sonification as a powerful and important analysis method in science.