LightSound looks like an awesome project!

The LightSound device was designed and developed in 2017 as a tool for the Blind and Low Vision (BLV) community to experience a solar eclipse with sound. The device uses a technique called sonification which is the process of converting data (or light intensity in this case) to sound. As the Moon eclipses the Sun during a Solar Eclipse the sunlight begins to dim and the LightSound device will output a change in musical tone.

In preparation for the 2024 total solar eclipse:

The LightSound Project has a goal of building 750+ devices to be distrubuted at no-cost to groups hosting eclipse events. Our hope is to provide a tool to aid in the accessibility of eclipse events for the blind and low vision community. The device can also be used as an educational tool prior to events when describing eclipse phenomena.

Link via kottke.

I link to to posts on kottke quite a bit. He has a list of a things he learned this year. Some of the ones I found fascinating:

21. There are satellites that were launched in the early to mid 60s that are still operational.
22. Multicellular life developed on Earth more than 25 separate times.

Of course, I have to include the one about the Parker Solar Probe:

32. The Parker Solar Probe is the fastest object ever built by humans — at its closest approach to the Sun, it will reach speeds of 430,000 mph (690,000 km/h), or 0.064% the speed of light.

And:

40. Human ancestors almost went extinct 900,000 years ago. “A new technique analysing modern genetic data suggests that pre-humans survived in a group of only 1,280 individuals.”
41. “People who enroll in genetic studies are genetically predisposed to do so.”

This great, one-purpose website displays an interactive map of the path of the 2023 eclipse over North America.

This allows you to find a place that you can get to in the path of totality on April 8, 2024. I’ll be watching near Dallas.

Pardon my snobbery, but if you see only the partial phase of this or any other eclipse, you really did not see the eclipse!

I agree with that. If you’ve only seen a partial eclipse, don’t think a total eclipse will be anything like that.

iTerm2 is a macOS terminal emulator with a lot of extra features. In particular, it has a simple protocol for displaying images inline. It comes with a program imgcat that will display common image formats such as PNG, JPEG, GIF, etc. Most of the images I deal with are FITS, though. I wrote fitscat to be a handy utility to display FITS images, as well as to print basic information about the FITS file such as a listing of extensions or an extension header.

For example, fitscat can display an image in an extension, as seen below:

There are options to specify a minimum and maximum value for scaling, as well as to use a simple filter such square root.

Also, fitscat can also print basic information about a FITS file, such as a listing of extensions:

CoMP$ fitscat --list 20150624.170419.comp.1074.iqu.5.fts
Filename: 20150624.170419.comp.1074.iqu.5.fts
No. Name Ver Type Cards Dimensions Format
0 PRIMARY 1 PrimaryHDU 67 ()
1 I, 1074.38 1 ImageHDU 33 (620, 620) float32
2 I, 1074.50 1 ImageHDU 33 (620, 620) float32
3 I, 1074.62 1 ImageHDU 33 (620, 620) float32
4 I, 1074.74 1 ImageHDU 33 (620, 620) float32
5 I, 1074.86 1 ImageHDU 33 (620, 620) float32
6 Q, 1074.38 1 ImageHDU 33 (620, 620) float32
7 Q, 1074.50 1 ImageHDU 33 (620, 620) float32
8 Q, 1074.62 1 ImageHDU 33 (620, 620) float32
9 Q, 1074.74 1 ImageHDU 33 (620, 620) float32
10 Q, 1074.86 1 ImageHDU 33 (620, 620) float32
11 U, 1074.38 1 ImageHDU 33 (620, 620) float32
12 U, 1074.50 1 ImageHDU 33 (620, 620) float32
13 U, 1074.62 1 ImageHDU 33 (620, 620) float32
14 U, 1074.74 1 ImageHDU 33 (620, 620) float32
15 U, 1074.86 1 ImageHDU 33 (620, 620) float32

Or display a header:

CoMP$ fitscat --header -e 3 20150624.170419.comp.1074.iqu.5.fts
XTENSION= 'IMAGE ' /extension type
BITPIX = -32 /bits per data value
NAXIS = 2 /number of axes
NAXIS1 = 620 /
NAXIS2 = 620 /
PCOUNT = 0 /
GCOUNT = 1 /
EXTNAME = 'I, 1074.62' /
WAVELENG= 1074.620 / WAVELENGTH OF OBS (NM)
POLSTATE= 'I ' / POLARIZATION STATE
EXPOSURE= 250.00 / EXPOSURE TIME (MILLISEC)
NAVERAGE= 16 / Number of images averaged together
FILTER = 1 / FILTER WHEEL POSITION (1-8)
DATATYPE= 'DATA' / DATA, DARK OR FLAT
LCVR1TMP= 29.639999 / DEGREES CELSIUS
LCVR2TMP= 33.429001 /
LCVR3TMP= 33.715000 /
LCVR4TMP= 33.738998 /
LCVR5TMP= 33.618999 /
LCVR6TMP= 28.847000 /
NDFILTER= 8 / ND 1=.1, 2=.3, 3=.5, 4=1, 5=2, 6=3, 7=4, 8=cle
BACKGRND= 13.154 / Median of masked line center background
BODYTEMP= 34.023 / TEMPERATURE OF FILTER BODY ©
BASETEMP= 33.599 / BASE PLATE TEMP ©
RACKTEMP= 25.012 / COMPUTER RACK AMBIENT AIR TEMP ©
OPTRTEMP= 33.306 / OPTICAL RAIL TEMP ©
DEMULT = 1 / 1=DEMULTIPLEXED, 0=NOT DEMULTIPLEXED
FILTTEMP= 35.000 / ILX FILTER TEMPERATURE ©
FLATFILE= '20150624.070023.FTS' / Name of flat field file
INHERIT = T /
DISPMIN = 0.00 / Minimum data value
DISPMAX = 5.00 / Maximum data value
DISPEXP = 0.50 / Exponent value for scaling

The full interface of fitscat is shown below:

usage: fitscat [-h] [--min MIN] [--max MAX] [--debug] [-d] [--resize-factor RESIZE_FACTOR] [-l]
               [-r] [-e EXTEN_NO] [-f FILTER] [-s SLICE] [--validate]
               filename

fitscat - a FITS query/display program

positional arguments:
  filename              FITS file to query

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --min MIN             min for scaling
  --max MAX             max for scaling
  --debug               set to debug
  -d, --display         set to display
  --resize-factor RESIZE_FACTOR
                        resize by factor
  -l, --list            set to list HDUs
  -r, --header          set to display header
  -e EXTEN_NO, --exten_no EXTEN_NO
                        specify extension
  -f FILTER, --filter FILTER
                        specify filter (default: none)
  -s SLICE, --slice SLICE
                        specify slice of data array to display
  --validate            check keywords against FITS standard

Source code for the Python script is available on GitHub. The script is compatible with Python 2 and 3, but requires standard scientific Python packages AstroPy, NumPy, and PIL.

I will be posting more about the Great American Eclipse of 2017 this summer. To start off with, NASA has made some great maps of where the total eclipse will be visible from:

On August 21, 2017, the moon will pass between Earth and the sun in a total solar eclipse that will be visible on a path from Oregon to South Carolina across the continental United States. This path of totality will occur in a little over 90 minutes, while observers on the ground will see the eclipse for about two and a half minutes. Standing at the edge of the moon’s shadow, or umbra, the difference between seeing a total eclipse and a partial eclipse comes down to elevation – mountains and valleys both on Earth and on the moon – which affect where the shadow lands. In this visualization, data from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter account for the moon’s terrain that creates a jagged edge on its shadow. This data is then combined with elevation data on Earth as well as information on the sun angle to create the most accurate map of the eclipse path to date. Watch the video to learn more.

NASA also has downloadable, detailed state maps of the eclipse path.

via kottke