Something Wonderful: The Music of the Spheres

To be heard at the Wheel of Stars Made by the genius of Jim Bumgardner and derived from data beamed down to Earth from Hipparcos:

I used this information to plot the brightest stars, and cause them to revolve about Polaris (the North Star) very slowly, as the stars appear to do. Like the night sky, this is a sidereal time clock -- it takes nearly 24 hours for the stars to fully rotate. You'll notice some familiar constellations, such as the Big Dipper in there. As the stars cross zero and 180 degrees, indicated by the center line, the clock plays an individual note, or chime for each star. The pitch of the chime is based on the star's BV measurement (which roughly corresponds to color or temperature). The volume is based on the star's magnitude, or apparent brightness, and the stereo panning is based on the position on the screen (use headphones to hear it better).

Hear it now. Five minutes in full screen mode should recenter you with God's great cosmos.

Posted by Vanderleun at October 7, 2009 5:03 PM