The Jack Will and Rob Center in Camas, Washington a week before opening.

Once in a while you get a project, which is truly out of the ordinary, and from which you get a true feeling of accomplishment.  A couple of years ago, 3 young boys were killed in a floatplane accident.  Their mother took it upon herself to spear head an effort to build a youth center in their memory.  Each of the boys has a plaque on the wall with their name, birthday and a brief phrase describing their personality or spirit.  She also had the idea some kind of optical system which would project a beam of light from the sun that would cross over each of their names on their birthday.  This turned out to be a bit more complicated than expected because the birthdays were spread over a number of months, but in the end, a system was designed, built, and installed which projects an image of the sun  onto the wall.

The basic optical system is that of a periscope comprised of a pair of objective lenses and a field lens in the  intermediate focal plane.  Two of the birthdays were in late winter, while the third was in summer.  The solar positions were therefore very different and the input optics were designed around a mirror system to direct the  sunlight into the objective lens, while a beamsplitter directed the low angle winter rays.  A multiple mirror system was also used at the exit end to keep the over all size down such that it could be hidden inside of a small dome such as used for security cameras.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Optical system mounted to ceiling.

Image of sun on wall prior to installation of commemorative plaques.