A Dark Tour of the Universe - Sonifications

<p dir="ltr">This material was part of the<i> </i><i>A Dark Tour of the Universe</i> astronomy show for the blind and visually impaired, first shown at the British Science Festival in 2019 (see: https://www.eso.org/public/announcements/ann19045/). The show combined tactile and audio resources to make the show accessible. Here we provide several of the audio resources, which were produced for the show. They make use of the concept of "sonification", turning data into sound. The sonifications were made in collaboration with Arup Acoustic Engineers, who made a sonification toolkit as described in this article: https://acoustics.org/data-sonification-case-study-presenting-astronomical-events-to-the-visually-impaired-via-sound/ </p><p dir="ltr">There are four audio files included:</p><ol><li><b>StarsAboveParanal.wav: </b>This sonified material allows the audience to listen to the stars appear as they did on 13 September 2019 at ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile. The sounds heard represent each star (brightest stars appear first) and the pitch of the sound represents the colour of the star. Time has been sped up. The position of the star in the surround sound systems is also tied to the real position on the night sky. However, the audio file has been modified from full surround sound (6.1), which was used in the show, down to stereo format for sharing here. </li><li><b>CV_V344Lyr.wav: </b>This sonified material allows the audience to listen to a Cataclysmic Variable star (V344 Lyr) that shows both short, low-amplitude (lasting for approximately 5 days) and long, large-amplitude (lasting for approximately 15 days) outbursts. Time has been spend up to be heard in a few seconds. The sound is produced by applying a frequency cut-off filter to noise. When the star is brighter there are more frequencies heard, so it sounds more powerful (intense). The data were taken from NASA’s Kepler mission that tracks how the star varies in brightness through time. </li><li><b>GalaxiesMerging.wav.</b> This sonified material allows the listener to "hear" too galaxies merging. This is based of simulation data to demonstrate what happens when two galaxies become close together and become gravitationally attracted. The simulation data was provided by Florent Renaud (Lund Observatory). In the sequence, one galaxy is represented by a lower pitch and one by a higher pitch. It can be heard how these galaxies pass each other several times, before merging into one single large galaxy. In reality this happens over many millions of years. The audio file has been modified from full surround sound (6.1), as used in the original show, down to a stereo format for sharing here.</li><li> <b>VI_Astronomy_Show_Preview.mp3: </b>This is a trailor-like audio file for the Dark Tour of the Universe Show, bringing together several of the audio clip examples with some narration to give a taster of what the full show was like. </li></ol><p dir="ltr"><b>Sonification Credits:</b> Kim-Marie N. Jones; Mitchell J. Allen; Kashlin McCutcheon (Arup); Chris Harrison/Miranda Jarvis (Newcastle University/ESO)<br><b>Music Credit (VI_Astronomy_Show_Preview.mp3)</b>: James Reevell</p><p dir="ltr"><b>Narration and audio editing (VI_Astronomy_Show_Preview.mp3):</b> Leigh Harrison</p>