Darren, Light received at all wavelengths, whether at the visible or radio wavelengths, is turned into two and three dimensional maps. Probably the best summary map at visual and radio wavelengths is NASA's Mulitwavelength Poster of the Milky Way http://mwmw.gsfc.nasa.gov/mwpics/mwmw_8x10.jpg (2.5megs) in http://mwmw.gsfc.nasa.gov/mmw_product.html#viewgraph Probably the three most famous radio maps are Dames' 1987 CO map of the Milky Way, based on radio emissions, the key points of which I have reproduced here: http://members.csolutions.net/fisherka/astronote/Clarkxref/vrml/refer_MWMW_R... Oort's 1956 radio emission map of CO clouds that first sketched the arms of the Milky Way - http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu//full/seri/MNRAS/0118//0999999P006.html and the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation - http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/ These maps are based on pointing a radio telescope at a particular point in the sky and noting the intensity and frequency of the signal. You can in princple listen to changes in tone or frequency, but it is boring. Generally, the intensity and frequency of the tone is recorded and is turned in a 1D graph or 2D map. Here's an example of a radio burst audio recording from synchrotronic radiation from Jupiter: http://radiojove.gsfc.nasa.gov/observing/samples/lbursts1.wav in http://radiojove.gsfc.nasa.gov/observing/sample_data.htm You can listen to it, but usually the audio is recorded and data viewed graphically as shown here - http://radiojove.gsfc.nasa.gov/observing/sample_data.htm Radio meteor listening is another example. Radio meteors can be listened to. They sound like this: http://science.nasa.gov/audio/sporadic.wav http://science.nasa.gov/spaceweather/meteors/audio/geminidecho.wav in http://www.spaceweather.com/glossary/forwardscatter.html But amateur and professional radio meteor observers tend to just record several hours and then look at the sounds graphically. That takes less time to scan visual and the graph gives more clues about the meteor burning up: http://www.spaceweather.com/glossary/images/sporadic_dynspec.gif in http://www.spaceweather.com/glossary/forwardscatter.html - Kurt P.S. - Probably the newest and coolest non-visual big map is the Spitzer Space Telescope improved resolution map of the Milky Way in infra-red. The map is hot off the press and was just released on June 3. http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/Media/releases/ssc2008-11/visuals.shtml