Good evening, folks!
So, I’m puzzling on “The Moon Problem.” My blind friends (obviously) can’t see the moon, so I’d like to figure out how to translate Luna. (And, most of us sighted folks miss her daily adventures, anyway.) There’s many layers to this challenge, and I’m tackling it from a variety of angles. The heart of the matter is to do what any translation does: get the point across.
Tonight, we have a quick vignette of a wonderous sight: a waning gibbous moon in late winter.
I had the scope out this evening, peering deep into space, a cool breeze rustling the windchimes. The notes seemed to match the twinkles of the stars above, playing out their ancient story in dots. Orion the hunter chased Lepus the hare towards the radio tower on top of the mountain, his dogs joining the pursuit. The sky below Leo was lightening - she was on her way, somewhere behind Long Mountain. “She’ll be coming ‘round the mountain when she comes.”
I stepped around the building, and there she was. The Moon, looming up, was a waning gibbous phase, somewhere between a half and full shape. She looked ever so slightly orangish, a warm vintage tint. It was getting late, and dim moonbeams streamed suddenly fourth. Trees high on the ridgeline were outlined, tiny against her face. There’s a wonderful optical illusion that makes the moon look huge when it’s low on the horizon, and tonight was no exception. I watched the trees, and sure enough, they disappeared. I could see the slow but certain movement of Moonrise. Our planet’s rotation on its axis makes the sun appear to rise and set, but more subtly, the moon and stars move across the sky. Unlike the sun, it’s OK to stare at these, and if one is mildly patient, our rotation is obvious.
The February chill made me shiver, or perhaps it was the beauty of this sight. There she was, the waning gibbous moon, casting a pale shadow of me on the driveway, staring back, marveling.
Josh, consider an oscillator producing sound in an audio spectrum which relates to the EM spectrum of light from the Moon, planets, stars, etc. That can be a way to help "visualize" with sound for those who cannot see. A musical instrument should be able to produce the notes and I think you are familiar with such. For a tactile approach, consider a fuzzy ball for something close and that appears large, like the Moon and ping pong balls for planets or marbles and mustard seeds for farther away objects such as stars.