View of Solar Beacon, 28th May 2012 from Emeryville Marina.
Photo: Jason McPhate
“In celebration of the 75th birthday of the Golden Gate Bridge, space scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, are topping each tower with a glittering solar candle.
The “candles” are mirrors that the public can control through the Internet to make them swivel and tilt, flashing a glint of reflected sun like a lit candle.
“We’re lighting the birthday candles at the bridge,” said John Vallerga, a researcher at UC Berkeley’s Space Sciences Laboratory (SSL), who conceived the project. Normally, he builds instruments that fly aboard spacecraft such as the Hubble Space Telescope.
His Earth-bound project, Solar Beacon, is one of 75 birthday tributes approved by the Golden Gate Bridge District in celebration of the bridge’s completion in 1937, and one of the few approved for installation on the bridge itself.
“This is not something we have ever done before or will ever do again – we don’t let people place art on the bridge,” said bridge manager and mechanical engineer Kary Witt. “But this is a pretty cool project, especially the technology they’re using, which is based on what they use in space…” — Robert Sanders, Media Relations, UC Berkeley News
For more information, or to schedule a personal viewing event, click here to go to the Solar Beacon website.
Related article: Mill Valley Patch
What a very interesting and creative idea!
The talent of people in the Bay Area never ceases to amaze me.