Originally posted by the Voice of America.
Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America,
a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in
the public domain.


Blind Chileans 'Listen' for Solar Eclipse

Reuters

   CACHIYUYO - 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.

   University of Valparaiso

   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.

   A professor of music and blind from birth, Oyarzún traveled from the
   nearby port of Caldera to "listen" to the eclipse, the first in the
   region since 1592, according to Chilean astronomers.

   "It's like a gift from science to be able to live this sensitive
   experience that we could not otherwise experience," added Oyarzún, who
   is married to a blind woman with whom he has two children who can see.

   "I feel like a bridge to the unknown, something that makes it possible
   to translate into the world of sounds what would be a mystery to us,"
   he added.

.