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Here we provide some suggestions of how you might use the Sonification Suite for astronomy communications. We have developed many of these thinking about planetarium shows, but the examples could also be used in other contexts including: night sky observing sessions (if you can take some speakers!); radio shows; public talks, podcasts, etc.
As well as the sounds themselves, we have provided some ideas for complementary workshops. For example, these might follow a planetarium show or a public talk.
In addition to this general set of suggestions, we also have a bank of examples (audio only and audio-visual) that you can use. We also have longer-form workshop ideas on our educational workshop pages.
These are meant to be starting points for ideas. If you have more ideas, or have examples of successful applications that used the Sonification Suite, please get in touch!
Stars in the Night Sky
Stars in the Night Sky
You can make your own custom Night Sky sonifications for all of the stars visible at a certain location on a certain data/time! In the Sonification Suite you can customise how you want the mapping of star properties to sounds to work and the magnitude limit of the stars you want to include. The stars will be heard in the correct position relative to the observer.
Within the Sonification Suite itself, you can only produce the audio track. However, we've also created some tools to help you create complementary visuals which might look something like the example here!
Example of a night sky sequence using the colours, positions, and magnitudes of stars on a particular date above the Very Large Telescope. The Sonification Suite can be used to make the audio for any time in any location.
Night Sky: More Information and Ideas (click to expand)
Night Sky: More Information and Ideas (click to expand)
This can be a great opener to a night sky planetarium show, or as part of an public observing night. This is an immersive experience for everyone, with obvious benefits for those with low vision. Furthermore, it can be a great sensory experience, without any learning objectives.
In the example sequence the brightest stars are heard first and the fainter stars later (based on magnitudes). The bluer stars are higher notes and the redder stars are lower notes. The stars are also heard from the correct location in a surround sound system.
Making the Sounds
You can use the "Night Sky" section of the Sonification Suite to produce the sequence for your own location and day/ime. The default styles in the Suite reproduce the effect like the one in the example for the stars above the date/time/location of your choosing. This could be good for using alongside a sunset sequence where the audience experience the stars appearing in the night sky. When using this sort of sound style remind the audience that the stars are visible all night unless they are below the horizon (even though the sounds are only heard from a short time). Of course, you can also use Custom styles to design your own approach to mapping the data to sound.
Also Want Animated Visuals?
The Sonification Suite App itself will only produce the audio (not an animation). However, there's a couple of options to help you to produce complementary visuals:
1. You can download the mappings table on the final sonification step. This will tell you the exact time that each sound is heard in the sonification. Therefore, if you have the ability to control the visuals (e.g., flashes) within your software, you can use the mappings table to control the visuals.
2. We've produced an exernal piece of software to produce visuals flashes and the sonifications together for fulldome (or in equirectangular format). This software is available as a Google Colab hosted notebook. This means, whilst it is running Python code - you do not need to install anything yourself, nor understand the code. You can use the form to fill in your preferences and then click "Run All" to make the animated video and sonification. You should make a preview (low resolution) as a test first! At the moment you can only use the default sound design options for this, but we intend to make it possible to upload your own sound design that you produced in the Sonification Suite. Read the instructions carefully! We will also provide a video tutorial on this on our tutorial examples page.
The impact of light pollution (click to expand)
The impact of light pollution (click to expand)
Light Pollution's impact on the night sky could be communicated by producing two versions of these stars appearing sequences: one with a magnitude limit of around 2 or 3 (representative of a city, with around 50 visible stars) and another around 6 (representative of a dark sky, with around two to three thousand visible stars).
Adding a tactile element
Adding a tactile element
If you have access to a swellform printer you can complement the sound of stars appear with a tactile star map. This is great for a longer workshop, especially for those with limited vision.
You can use the tool from theskylive to produce the required black and white star map to send through the swellform printer. Note that the planets are coloured in these star maps, which will not come out in the swellform printer as tactile objects.
Stars are always changing (stellar variability)
Stars are always changing (stellar variability)
It is commonly thought that stars are constant in brightness. However, there are so many exciting reasons why stars are changing in brightness all the time! Presenting stellar variability with sound in very effective, and audiences will find this much more engaging and understandable then visual represenations.
You could start by explaining that the Sun has a gradual 11 year cycles, but other stars vary in more dramatic ways. Then talk about other types of variability.
Notes on finding and producing light curve sonifications (click to expand)
Notes on finding and producing light curve sonifications (click to expand)
Size of variations: The standard behaviour for the Sonification Suite is to normalise the data so that the minimum flux of the light curve corresponds to the minimum of the sound parameter (with normalised range of 0.0 to 1.0). However, this exaggerates the true variations of the stellar light (which might only vary by a few percent or less). If you want to reduce the perceived size of the variations in the sound you can make a custom sound design and reduce the output range (e.g., to a range of 0.5 to 0.65).
Finding your own light curves: In the Suite you can use our own currated set of light curve examples, or you can search the Kepler, TESS and K2 databases for light curve data. You can search by star name (which is resolved by the SIMBAD database) or TESS (TIC), Kepler (KIC) or Ecliptic Plane Input Catalogue (EPIC). For example you could search for: "Kepler-16", "KIC 12644769" or "TIC 299096355", which are all the same star (see SIMBAD identifiers for Kepler-16).
Selecting light curves: Once you have searched for a light curve, you can visually view the data in the Suite's search output. The Suite returns the available light curves for this source. These are roughly ordered by what might be the best quality. However, it is best to visually inspect the datasets to pick one which looks high quality. The Suite does not automatically sticth together multiple observations of the same source. It is possible for you to produce your own light curve data and upload this using the "Upload your own" button on the Light Curve section (one the same page as the search box).
Different reasons stars vary (click to expand)
Different reasons stars vary (click to expand)
In the light curve section of the Sonification Suite, we've provided a range of example stars that vary for different reasons. You can talk about exoplanet transits, eclipsing binary stars, cataclysmic variables, pulsating variables etc. Depending on the level you want to pitch this show, it could go into scientific detail or simply showcase the variety and exciting stars without much detail!
A show based around Cygnus (click to expand)
A show based around Cygnus (click to expand)
As an example show section, you could focus on some stars within the Cygnus constellation. A set of sonifications could be made, using a consistent mapping of two observation days per second in the sonification:
V1154 Cygni is a pulsating Cepheid variable star with a pulsation period of close to 5 days. The light curve is regular pulsation and can be heard effectively with a sonification. This opens up opportunity to talk about standard candles, heating/cooling of stars etc. We provide this as an example data, but if you search for this star the best dataset is: TESS-SPOC, TESS Sector 82.
V477 Cygni is an eclipsing binary, containing a heartbeat star. It has a great light curve to talk about stars passing in front of each other, and the sound of a heartbeat. We provide this as one of the examples in the Suite, but if you search for this star, the best data set is: TESS-SPOC, TESS Sector 82.
SS Cygni is a cataclysmic variable star. A good data set is TESS Sector 83.
Kepler-12: The stars from the Kepler fields, close to Cygnus offer many light curves to pick from! Kepler 12 has a strong exoplanet signal in the light curve, with a hot Jupiter star with an orbital period of 4.4 days.
Some example light curves
Some example light curves
Heartbeat star sonification (downloadable) - V477 Cyni
This is just one example sound design, check out the Sonification Suite for more options!
Pulsating variable star sonification (downloadable) - V1154 Cygni.
This is just one example sound design, check out the Sonification Suite for more options!
Cataclysmic variable sonification (downloadable) - V344 Lyr.
This is just one example sound design, check out the Sonification Suite for more options!
Constellations
Constellations
To introduce stars in a constellation you can make use of the Constellations part of the Sonification Suite. It is a good idea to start with a simple constellation with only a few stars, for example Cassiopeia, Cancer or Crux. You can use a sonification approach where it is possible to hear the brightest stars as loudest and the reddest stars as lowest. The Mallets style is designed for this purpose, where the order of the stars is in Right Ascension - but you can also customise the order you want the stars to be played! Therefore, you could ask the audience to, for example:
Count the number of stars they hear
Identify the brightest / reddest stars / bluest stars
This is an opportunity to talk about individual stars in a constellation if you wish. For example, if presenting Orion you can use the Mallets style and ask the audience to pay attention to the bright and red Betelguese and the bright and blue Rigel.
Adding Visual Animation (click to expand)
Adding Visual Animation (click to expand)
If you want to have the stars of the contellation "flash", in a similar manner to the whole night sky animation (see above), this is could be possible! A couple of ways you might do this:
1. You can download the mappings table on the final sonification step. This will tell you the exact time that each sound is heard in the sonification. Therefore, if you have the ability to control the visuals (e.g., flashes) within your software, you can use the mappings table to control the visuals.
2. We've produced an exernal piece of software to produce visuals flashes and the sonifications together for fulldome (or in equirectangular format). This software is available as a Google Colab hosted notebook. This means, whilst it is running Python code - you do not need to install anything yourself, nor understand the code. You can use the form to fill in your preferences and then click "Run All" to make the animated video and sonification. You should make a preview (low resolution) as a test first! At the moment you can only use the default sound design options for this, but we intend to make it possible to upload your own sound design that you produced in the Sonification Suite. Read the instructions carefully! We will also provide a video tutorial on this on our tutorial examples page.
Adding a tactile elements
Adding a tactile elements
In collaboration with Tactile Universe, we are also experimenting with Tactile contellation plates that can be 3D printed. These are a work in progress and we expect to update/improve these. For now, you can experiment with these models:
These can be particularly beneficial for visitors with low vision. They can trace their fingers over the models as you talk about the constellations and play them the sonifications. Note that it is much better to start with Cancer as this is a simpler model.
When printing the models, these are recommended settings:
wall line count = 2
layer height = 0.2
turned off dynamic quality
4 solid top and bottom layers
gyroid infill at 20% density
If you have access to a swellform printer you can more quickly produce tactile constellation maps (see photo).
Solar System Planets and Moons
Solar System Planets and Moons
Solar System Planets and the Moon
Solar System Planets and the Moon
We have not yet created a customisable approach for sonification of the Solar System planets or the Moon within the Sonification Suite. However, you can make use of clips from Audio Universe Tour of the Solar System to discuss the planets and the Moon.
As part of our Tour of the Solar System Educational Workshop we also have created a set of complimentary sound-based games (which can be used in the planetarium) and tactile activities (which can be used as part of a hands-on workshop).
If you have your own dataset you want to use, you can upload it with the Data Composer part of the Suite in the form of a commas-separated-variable (CSV) table.
Exoplanets
Exoplanets
Finding Exoplanets
Finding Exoplanets
In the future we aim to connect the Sonification Suite to an exoplanet database so that could communicate information about different exoplanet systems (their masses, orbital periods etc.). For example, to produce a sonification similar to the one we produced for the Solar System planets.
For now, you can search for light curves with exoplanet transits and sonify these to explain one of the methods that are used to detect and measure exoplanet systems. Some interesting systems (select the Kepler datasets after doing the searches). Some interesting light curves with exoplanet systems: Kepler-9, Kepler-12, and Kepler-21.
Kepler-16 has two Sun's and one planet!
Exoplanet transit sonification (downloadable) - Kepler-12.
This is just one example sound design, check out the Sonification Suite for more options!
Black Holes and Gravitational Waves
Black Holes and Gravitational Waves
Gravitational Waves
Gravitational Waves
Gravitational waves are a naturally communicated well with sounds. We've yet to include the option to automatically process gravitational wave data within the Sonification Suite. For now, we've provided in an example sequence in our Example Bank.
Tactile Universe have a great workshop about gravitational waves making use of tactile models. These are designed for students with low vision, but are a great interactive for all audiences! The target age range is pupils aged 14 years and older.
Tactile Universe Gravitational Wave lesson plans.
Tactile Universe Tactile Models.
Tactile Universe resources: Acknowledgement of use
Asteroids
Asteroids
The smaller asteroids in the Solar System are known to be non-spherical and rotating with periods in the range of a few hours to several days. As the asteroid rotates, as seen from the Earth, the observed cross-section changes causing the observed brightness to change. Therefore asteroid light curves can be used to determine the rotation period and estimate the shape of the asteroid.
A great possibility for a multi-sensory experience would be to produce a sonification of an asteroid light curve, along with a 3D-printed model of the asteroid.
A light curve of an asteroid (middle panel) and an estimated model shape during the period of observations (top images). Image Credit: Mark Swinbank.
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