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MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for Runaway1956

In the minutes before a solar eclipse plunged Chile into darkness, a loudspeaker projected a deep baritone to a group of blind men and women who had traveled to the Atacama desert to "hear" what hundreds of thousands of others had come to see.

Then, a moment of silence until the sunlight, and the sound, returned.

Tourists from around the globe converged on the northern Chilean desert on Tuesday to witness the total eclipse under the world's clearest skies.

The musical experience, orchestrated by Chile's University of Valparaiso, was designed to help blind people, or those with some level of visual impairment, experience the phenomenon through a change in the frequency of sounds.

"It was exciting, incredible, a magical experience," said Octavio Oyarzún, 41, one of the thousands of people who came to the small town of Cachiyuyo, about 600 km (373 miles) north of Santiago.

[...] "This allows people who can't see the eclipse to hear it," said the scientist. "As astronomers, this excites us."

Denisse Reyes, 34, said the experience surprised her.

"I can perceive lights, I can recognize day and night, but this amazed me. I felt like I was entering the mysterious world of the planets and the solar system," she said.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-solar-eclipse-chile-blind/blind-chileans-listen-for-the-solar-eclipse-idUSKCN1TX31N

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