Patterns always hold a special fascination for me, and I love this series of photos I recently took at Indiana's Valparaiso University.


I zoomed in on the repeating hexagonal mirrors, and then zoomed back out at several different lens focal lengths for a look at the bigger picture of the concave arrangement of 306 curved mirrors that make up the concentrator of the solar furnace on campus.


We'd seen a student adjusting what we first thought might be a telescope or survey instrument and walked over to investigate.
We found two students working on the solar furnace and got a quick primer from them on how it worked, and how it was part of the school's research into developing solar energy as a viable renewable alternate energy source.
It turns out that the student we first saw was adjusting a flat mirror called a heliostat that sits in front of the furnace to track the sun and direct the sunlight into the concentrator. The furnace can produce over 3,000-degree Fahrenheit temperatures within a solar thermal reactor that helps produce chemical reactions and further the students' research and work to produce solar fuels.
The students proudly told us that Valparaiso University is just one of four research facilities in the United States to have a solar furnace, and I also found out that the school is the only undergraduate university in the country to have one.

Engineering students and faculty designed and began building the solar furnace and its 2,000-square-foot in 2000, aiming for it to be fully operational this fall.

Check out my story from earlier this week, Visiting Indiana's Valparaiso University, for more about the school and to learn how an earlier group of Valpo Engineering students built another facility on campus that helped restore the department to a four-year degree granting program after the Depression in the 1930s.
Thanks to Debbie Dubrow of Delicious Baby for creating and coordinating Photo Friday to link travel photos and blog posts across the Web.
© Dominique King 2012 All rights reserved
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