# Remote Skylights

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'''Remote Skylights''' are optical systems capable of providing [natural light](/source/Sunlight) to unlit locations.  An arrangement of parabolic reflectors and [optical fiber cable](/source/optical_fiber_cable)s, transport natural sunlight to areas that would otherwise be dark or be lit artificially.

Remote skylights are composed chiefly of a solar collection dish, a "heliotube" and a distribution dish.<ref>{{cite web
 |url         = http://thelowline.org/about/technology
 |title       = Remote Skylights
 |publisher   = The Lowline
 |accessdate  = 2012-10-12
 |url-status     = dead
 |archiveurl  = https://web.archive.org/web/20121015152014/http://thelowline.org/about/technology
 |archivedate = 2012-10-15
}}</ref>   The collection and distribution dishes are both [parabolic reflector](/source/parabolic_reflector)s.  The collection dish is connected to a [heliostat](/source/heliostat), a mechanism which tracks the transit of the sun across the sky, so as to maximize the intensity of light falling upon it.  The heliotube is a fiber [light tube](/source/light_tube), a bundle of [optical fiber](/source/optical_fiber)s that channel the collected sunlight from the collection dish to the distribution dish.  Unlike a typical [skylight](/source/skylight), the heliotube allows the two dishes to be in different places.

Remote Skylights were invented by RAAD studio<ref>{{cite magazine|last=O'Rourke |first=Meghan
 |url=http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2012/09/meet-the-lowline.html
 |title=The Lowline: A Proposed Underground Park in Manhattan
 |magazine=[The New Yorker](/source/The_New_Yorker) |date=September 2012 |accessdate=2012-10-12}}</ref> in order to provide natural illumination to the proposed [Lowline](/source/Lowline_(park)) underground park.

== Benefits ==
Remote Skylights provide two key advantages over artificial illumination:
# The transported light contains the frequencies necessary for [photosynthesis](/source/photosynthesis). (Though it is reported that [harmful UV](/source/UV_filter) rays are filtered out.)
# No power is required to sustain the illumination. This means that (after construction) no harmful [greenhouse gases](/source/greenhouse_gases) are produced.

== See also ==
* [Light tube](/source/Light_tube)

== References ==
{{reflist}}

Category:Fiber optics
Category:Lighting
Category:Solar architecture
Category:Energy-saving lighting
Category:Sustainable building
Category:Windows

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Remote Skylights](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_Skylights) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_Skylights?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.