BALTIMORE, Jan. 15 (UPI) -- The U.S. space agency Tuesday announced the release of a book that makes images taken by space and land telescopes available to the blind through Braille.
The book -- "Touch the Invisible Sky" -- was unveiled during a ceremony at the National Federation of the Blind in Baltimore.
The 60-page book presents color images of nebulae, stars, galaxies and other pictures, with each image 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 experience them.
Braille and large-print descriptions accompany each of the book's 28 photographs, making the book accessible to readers of all visual abilities.
Included are images from the Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-ray Observatory, Spitzer Space Telescope and powerful ground-based telescopes. The celestial objects are presented as they appear through visible-light telescopes and different spectral regions invisible to the naked eye, from radio to infrared, visible, ultraviolet and X-ray light.
The book will be available through NASA, the National Federation of the Blind, schools for the blind, libraries, museums, science centers and the Ozone Publishing Co.
