When the solar eclipse crosses the United States on April 8, casting an eerie daytime darkness as the moon's shadow completely covers the sun, those who are blind or have limited vision will be able to listen to the phenomenon, possibly for the very first time.
Volunteers across the country have been hard at work assembling devices created by researchers at Harvard University that convert light into sound.
These handheld devices, known as LightSound, make solar eclipses more accessible to the blind and low vision community.
In a process called "sonification," the device uses a light sensor that takes the measured intensity of light and converts it to a pitch so that the listener can experience the real-time darkening during an eclipse.
"The sound output gets mapped to instruments based on the brightness of the light. And so the brightest light, bright like sunlight, essentially would be mapped to kind of like a flute sound," Harvard astronomer Allyson Bieryla told Texas Standard. "The midrange goes to a clarinet kind of sound, and then during totality or the darker times during eclipse, it's kind of a low clicking sound."
The device can be attached to headphones for a personal experience or to a speaker for group listening.
The idea for LightSound was born before the 2017 eclipse that passed over the US. While the team only had three devices for that eclipse, they hope to have more than 700 assembled and distributed in time for April's eclipse, KXAN reported. They also hope to grow the project and make even more devices ahead of the next total solar eclipse in 2026, which will be visible from Europe.
You can request a LightSound device through the project's website.
The next total solar eclipse that will be visible from the U.S. won't happen again for 40 years -- in August 2044.
On April 8, the solar eclipse's path of totality will move through the country beginning in Texas around 12:23 p.m. CT and ending in Maine around 4:40 p.m. ET.
An estimated 31.6 million people live in the path of totality, where the moon's shadow completely covers the sun, according to NASA. It will be visible in parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. Small parts of Tennessee and Michigan will also experience the total solar eclipse.
You don't need to live within the path of totality to see the eclipse. NASA says 99% of people who reside in the US will be able to see the partial or total eclipse from where they live. Every state, plus parts of Alaska and Hawaii, will experience at least a partial solar eclipse.
During the eclipse, it's not safe to look directly at the sun without specialized eye protection for solar viewing. NASA recommends using solar viewing glasses ("eclipse glasses") or a handheld solar viewer, both of which are thousands of times darker than regular sunglasses. You can also use an indirect viewing method such as a pinhole projector, which has a small opening and projects an image of the sun onto a nearby surface.
If you aren't able to see the eclipse or want to check it out up close, NASA is hosting a live broadcast of the event with views across the path, expert commentary and more, beginning at 1 p.m. ET on April 8.