Trying to observe
shooting stars
for visually disabled
by
Yoshitake Misaki
August,２００２
People tend to think that
blind persons can't observe stars and they can't use optical
telescopes as sighted people. Can't they use radio telescopes? In
fact, I know a 'blind' radio astronomer working in the USA. He
hears datum from a radio telescope by a kind of computer
software.
Ｉhave
tried to apply that system of radio observation of shooting stars
for my students and others with visual handicaps. In 1998, I
first tried sound, using radio observation of shooting stars for
them. It was exciting and was talked about favorably among those
people. In 1999, we could access Leonids through my web page
about 2000 times per day. On August 1998, NHK TV, which is the
Japanese National broadcasting station, broadcasted that trial
nationally on the morning news.
1 The First Trial in
1998.
Teachers and students in our school for the blind had seldom
talked about
Leonids in 1998. But Leonids was very popular in the world. Ｉ searched and hit
the web page of Misato observatory in Wakayama Prefecture. There
was an FM radio observation system of shooting stars site on that
web page. As soon asＩhad accessed that page,Ｉsent an E-mail
including my idea related to visually disabled to the Misato
Observatory.
Sinji Toyomatsu is a staff member of the Misato Observatory. He
replied to me immediately. He told me that he agreed with my
idea. He wrote "Your idea is great! …No one feels radio waves. So we were
challenged to change radio waves to graph or sound for beginners.
But I'm very surprised that it is useful for visually
disabled!"
Dr. Noboru Koshizuka of Tokyo University cooperated with this
plan.
２ How Does It Work？
The National Astronomical Observatory and public relations office
introduced my attempt to amateur space enthusiasts in Japan. The
following is quoted from "The national observatory and the
astronomical news"(228) .
"The trace of the meteor's flight occurs where an atmosphere
is ionized. For a while, this ionized part reflects electric
waves. Therefore, an electric wave from a far away FM
broadcasting station is sometimes reflected in this ionized part.
For several seconds, you can hear far away FM broadcasting.
This time, the electric wave of the MU radar(3) relays are
reflected wave to trace the flight of the meteor. The MU radar
facilities are in Kyoto University, Shigaraki in Kyoto. You hear
a white noise generally. However, when the electric wave which
was reflected in the meteor trace reaches radar, you hear a
sound, a pong, momentarily. You find that the meteor emerges when
hearing this sound. You can count the number of the meteor
appearances. Also, you find that the number of the meteors
fluctuates, too. However, the one received doesn't always
correspond to the meteor which can be seen by the eyes."
In the begining in 1998, we took radio waves from an amateur
radio station, too. The relay of the Leonids was from 9 PM,
November 17th to 9 AM on the 18th. The Misato Obsavatry was
relaying at 53.7496MHz usb. This was at 53.7500MHz CW wave from
one amateur radio station. Shinji Toyomasu sent sound by the Real
Audio format and 20kbbs.
3 Blind people's impression
It was favorably spoken of by the visually disabled. In 1999, we
could access Leonids through my web page about 2000 times per
day. On August 1998, NHK TV, which is the Japanese National
broadcasting station, broadcasted that trial nationally on the
morning news.
I will introduce one blind person's impression concerning this to
you.
"I was hearing the sound of MU radar. I saved the sound data
on a HDD. I heard it several times. This sound is like lasting 32
seconds noise. There were several other sounds. The last one is
very strong!"
4 references
(1) Yoshitake Misaki
Mathematics teacher
High school Dept.
Tokyo Metropolitan Hachiouji School for the Blind
19-22, 3chome, Daimachi Hachiouji-shi
Tokyo 193-0931 JAPAN
Tel:81-426-23-3278
Fax:81-426-23-6262
e-mail:jcg02554@nifty.ne.jp
website:http://member.nifty.ne.jp/ymisaki
(2) The blind scientist, Dr. D. Kent Cullers
http://www.seti-inst.edu/phoenix/staff.html
For a comparison of science fact and science fiction
Dr. Kent Clark is the fictional character in the movie
"Contact."
http://www.seti-inst.edu/phoenix/contact.html
(3) Misato Observatory
http://www.obs.misato.wakayama.jp/mo-e.html
(4) Kyoto University MU Radar
http://www.kurasc.kyoto-u.ac.jp/radar-group/index-e.html
(5) The voice datum of the Leonids meteors in 1998
(4:10AM November 17, 1998)
http://member.nifty.ne.jp/ymisaki/leo.rm
http://member.nifty.ne.jp/ymisaki/leo.wav