| Name: | HARSH TEKAWADE |
| Affiliation: | FERGUSSON COLLEGE PUNE |
| Conference ID : | ASI2024_970 |
| Title : | ASTRONOMY WITHOUT VISUAL PERCEPTION |
| Authors : | TEKAWADE H, PACHKAWADE N, Dr DABHADE R |
| Authors Affiliation: | TEKAWADE H, PACHKAWADE N, Dr DABHADE R ( FERGUSSON COLLEGE , PUNE-411004, INDIA) |
| Mode of Presentation: | Poster |
| Abstract Category : | Education, Outreach and Heritage |
| Abstract : | ASTRONOMY WITHOUT VISUAL PERCEPTION
It is truly very sad that visually impaired people cannot conceptualize the world we live in let alone the concept of the sky and astronomy.
In the present work we demonstrate the different models used and tested among our own college visually impaired group of students from “Saathi group” during the annual exhibition.
As visually impaired people basically use tactile receptors, Plaster of Paris models are commonly used by all, but we have used alternative low-cost materials to depict the following concepts:
Solar System Sensation: Utilizing various textures like small pebbles, beads and sand for rocky planets, threads and wool for gaseous planets and cotton for the Sun.
Galactic Feel: Employing textured beads representations to help grasp the shapes of galaxies, be it elliptical, irregular, or spiral made of different sizes of beads.
The constellation umbrella: This gave them the idea of dome shaped sky therefore we chose the inner part of the umbrella. The constellations were marked inside on different sectors of the umbrella to give them some idea of shape and significance of the particular constellation using buttons and woollen threads were used to trace – join the stars to feel the constellation, here the size of stars determined its luminosity.
We are presently working on adding Sound and Scent (of forest or sea shore under the dark sky) to the above to make it more appealing to a variety of senses. One of the visually impaired student smiled and remarked “Whenever I think of astronomy now my mind won’t go blank!” in the local language. |
