A new book of majestic images, taken by NASA’s Hubble
Space Telescope (HST), brings the wonders of our universe to
the fingertips of the visually impaired.
The 64-page book, titled “Touch the Universe: A NASA Braille
Book of Astronomy,” presents color images of planets,
nebulae, stars, and galaxies. Each image is embossed with
lines, bumps, and other textures. The raised patterns
translate colors, shapes, and other intricate details of the
cosmic objects, allowing visually impaired people to feel
what they cannot see. The book incorporates Braille and
large-print descriptions, for each of the book’s 14
photographs, so it is accessible to readers of most visual
abilities.
“I think this book will help the blind community to better
understand the variety of objects in space,” explains the
book’s author, Noreen Grice, operations coordinator for the
Charles Hayden Planetarium at the Boston Museum of Science.
“This book brings amazing celestial objects, seen with the
Hubble Space Telescope, to the fingertips of the visually
impaired, where they can better understand the universe and
their place within it.”
NASA, which helped fund the book, and the publisher, the
Joseph Henry Press, trade imprint of the National Academies
Press (publisher for the National Academy of Sciences), will
publicly release “Touch the Universe” on Thursday, Nov. 21,
at events at both the National Federation of the Blind in
Baltimore, and at DePaul University in Chicago.
“For the last 12 years, Hubble discoveries have not only
rewritten the science textbooks, the stunning images from HST
have also become a part of American culture. But while these
images have wowed the world, until now, there was still one
group – the blind – who could not share in this marvel,” said
Ed Weiler, NASA’s Associate Administrator for Space Science.
“Now thanks to this extraordinary new book, Hubble images are
literally in the hands of those who could not experience the
beauty of the cosmos before,” he said.
“Touch the Universe” takes the reader on a cosmic journey. It
begins with an image of the Hubble Space Telescope orbiting
Earth, and then travels outward into the universe, showing
objects such as Jupiter, the Ring Nebula, and the Hubble Deep
Star Field North.
Grice collaborated with Bernhard Beck-Winchatz, an astronomer
at DePaul University in Chicago, to develop the book with a
$10,000 Hubble Space Telescope grant for educational
outreach. In 1990, Grice published, “Touch the Stars,” an
astronomy book containing tactile line drawings of objects
such as constellations, planets, and galaxies.
“I thought that Noreen’s book, ‘Touch the Stars,’ was a
wonderful idea, especially because astronomy is thought of as
a visual science,” Beck-Winchatz explains. “At the same time,
when I saw the book and her sketches, I thought there was so
much more we could do. There are so many wonderful images
that are used in classrooms around the world as a hook to get
kids interested in science, and I wanted children with visual
impairments to also benefit from these amazing pictures,” he
said.
The pair began working on the book after Beck-Winchatz
received the Hubble grant. Grice wrote the text and
translated the images; Beck-Winchatz served as science
advisor. Working in her kitchen, Grice made prototypes of the
Hubble images by tracing them on plastic sheets, using
special tools to create raised details. Grice not only tried
to represent the outlines of stars, planets, and galaxies,
she also used consistent patterns to denote color and matter.
Raised lines, for example, represent blue. Rings are
illustrated with dotted lines, and wavy ones signify gas
currents.
Students at the Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind in
Colorado Springs evaluated each image for clarity and
provided suggestions for improvement. Grice traced the final
illustrations onto metal plates and placed them in a heat
vacuum machine to create multiple copies of molded plastic
pages. The pages became the first prototypes of her book.
“Touch the Universe” information is on the Internet at:
