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Jan.
15 , 2008: Images from NASA telescopes are jewels
of the space program, marvelous to behold. But how do you
behold them when you can't see?
The
answer lies between the covers of a new NASA-funded book written
in Braille, Touch the Invisible Sky.
In
an inspiring forward to the volume, blind mountain climber
Erik Weihenmayer writes, "Sight ... is only one of the
many tools with which to experience the marvels of the world."
Touch the Invisible Sky uses Braille, large type
print, and tactile diagrams of celestial images observed by
space telescopes Hubble, Chandra, and Spitzer to reveal the
cosmos to the blind and seeing-impaired.
Many
of the pictures in the book show the cosmos at wavelengths
that no human eye can see--e.g., infra-red, ultraviolet and
x-rays. "By showing these images, we remind readers that
most of the universe and its beauty is hidden for all of our
eyes unless we use special telescopes," says Doris Daou,
a NASA astronomer who co-authored the book along with Noreen
Grice and Simon Steele.
According
to Kathleen Lestition, who coordinates Education and Outreach
for the Chandra X-ray Center, "The Touch the Invisible
Sky project began as a small mission grant, but NASA
is making this book a national resource, distributing copies
of the book at no cost to schools of the blind around the
US, the Library of Congress, several blind technology and
training centers, and state libraries that have astronomy
collections."
Science@NASA
asked two blind readers to review the book. Until age 15,
Tim Hendel could see light and dark, colors, shadows, and
large objects such as the sun and moon. He could not read
print but learned to read Braille. Deborah Saylor was born
totally blind and also reads Braille. Hendel and Saylor live
in Huntsville, Alabama, and have been space enthusiasts since
childhood. Both experienced Touch the Invisible Sky
and shared their comments.
Tim
Hendel:
"Even
though I've lived in Huntsville, which is nicknamed the 'Rocket
City,' for twelve years, I had no idea what a space telescope
looked like or how a star might be depicted on a map. There's
not much information on this kind of thing in Braille, so
I was thrilled to read Touch the Invisible Sky.
 Right:
Tim Hendel explores the X-ray Sun with his fingertips. Click
to view more images of Tim and Deborah reading Touch the
Invisible Sky: #1,
#2, #3,
#4, #5.
On
page 4 is a depiction of all the wavelengths of the electro-magnetic
spectrum, from radio to gamma-rays. It shows, in a way, that
all humans are partially blind. No one can see gamma-rays!
Yet the cosmos is bright and lively in these 'invisible' wavelengths.
I'm
a ham radio operator, so I already had a good understanding
of the radio part of the spectrum, but it's useful to see
the entire spectrum shown on one diagram. I can show this
diagram to some of my other blind friends to explain how the
whole spectrum comes together and how astronomers use different
kinds of telescopes to 'see' everything from radio waves to
gamma-rays.
I
knew that our sun emits light and heat, and I had a vague
notion that there were other kinds of radiation that our sun
and other stars emit. But looking at the diagrams in the book
brought home to me just how little of the actual energy sent
out by stars can be seen with the eyes or felt on the skin."
Deborah
Saylor:
"I
moved to Huntsville a few years ago. After all these years
of living here in the Rocket City and hearing about the space
industry, I'm finally able to appreciate space exploration
in the same way everyone else does! So I am, to say the least,
very excited about being able to see this book!
 The
thing that impressed me so much about Touch the Invisible
Sky was the way the authors put things together so I
could experience what people with sight are seeing. The diagrams
helped me to see, but, through touch. The explanations of
the diagrams were very helpful for getting the ideas across.
Right:
Touch the Invisible Sky--book cover. [Larger
image]
I
like this book a lot, and I recommend it to others. It's really
something!"
Touch
the Invisible Sky ends with the following analogy: "Imagine
that you could only hear sound from the middle three keys
on a piano and were asked to name a song.... Being able to
study a star, nebula, or galaxy across the entire electromagnetic
spectrum gives us the big picture, providing clues to unravel
the greatest mysteries ...."
Saylor,
a Van Cliburn finalist who plays entire piano concertos from
memory, agrees: "The way to seek and learn the most is
to develop as many ways of 'seeing' things as possible. And
keep your sense of curiosity and wonder alive, always!"
That's
exactly what scientists do as they journey through the cosmos,
and now the blind can ride along.
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Author: Dauna Coulter | Production Editor:
Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit: Science@NASA
| more
information |
|
Touch
the Invisible Sky was authored by astronomy educator
and accessibility specialist Noreen Grice of You Can
Do Astronomy LLC and Museum of Science, Boston, astronomer
Simon Steel of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
in Cambridge, MA, and astronomer Doris Daou of NASA.
NASA funded the astronomy Braille book, which was publicly
released Tuesday, January 15, 2008.
The
tactile diagrams feature raised outlines and textures
superimposed on the images themselves to indicate how
the objects appear differently according to wavelength
viewed in – for example, radio, infrared, visible, ultra-violet,
or x-ray. The text clearly and concisely explains what
each image shows, and even describes how the different
types of telescopes capture the images.
The
Braille and the tactile diagrams are done in clear acrylic
overlay, so the large print type and high-resolution
color images can be viewed as well as felt. Touch the
Invisible Sky is therefore a useful teaching tool for
mainstream classrooms and parents with blind children,
making the same information accessible simultaneously
by sighted, non-sighted, and reduced-vision readers.
NASA
has funded two other astronomy-related Braille books:
Touch
the Universe and Touch
the Sun.
NASA's
Future: The
Vision for Space Exploration |
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