The Sound Of The Sun Imaged On CymaScope
A new cymatics exhibit at the Smithsonian, which runs through to December 9th 2012, features a “Star Station” in which visitors can see the “songs of stars.”
John Stuart Reid, co-creator of the world’s first CymaScope, was asked by Deborah Stokes, curator for education at the Smithsonian Institute, to image four ’songs of stars’ for their African Cosmos Stellar Arts Exhibition.
The star sound files, which include the sound of the sun, were fed into a CymaScope, which makes the star sounds visible by imprinting them on the surface of ultra pure water, transcribing the sounds to periodic wavelets, effectively rendering the sounds visible.
The CymaScope imagery was captured on-camera and sent to James Stuart Reid, John’s son, who provided colorization and titles.
The completed videos were then sent to the Smithsonian where Michael Briggs used them to create the “Star Station,” a booth where visitors can experience the stars-sounds-made-visible for the first time.
“This is an important milestone for the CymaScope and for cymatics in general,” Reid says. “It will help cymatics gain acceptance in the world as a useful scientific technique.”
Initial visitor reaction to the Star Station has been very positive and children, in particular, love it.
You can watch the four star-sounds-made-visible videos by clicking here.
The star sounds were processed by the following scientists:
Star: RR Lyrae Dr Elisabeth Guggenberger, University of Vienna, Austria
Star: Chi Hydrae Dr Conny Aerts and team, University of Leuven, Belgium. ?Sound file created by: European Southern Observatory.
Star: PG1159+035 Michael Breger, Department of Astronomy, University of Texas, USA.
Star: Sun Dr Guenter Houdek and Dr Douglas Gough, University of Vienna, Austria.
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