Vega Industries Limited is a company in Porirua, New Zealand, which manufactures specialised navigation and signal lights for use in transportation industries, primarily marine navigation. Vega has been in business since 1972 when it built a marine guidance system based on a design by Norman Rumsey. [1]
Throughout the forty-plus years that Vega has been operating it has produced lights, which can be found all around the globe. From manufacturing the first LED lighthouse beacon (VRB-25) installed in the United States, [2] to equipping Lake Balaton in Hungary with inland beacons (VLB-92). They have lighthouse and marine beacons installed in the United Kingdom and PEL Precision sector lights found in most major ports and harbours as well as remote locations like Alaska or the discreet US Naval Base Diego Garcia. [3]
The most commonly used Vega navigation lights are the Vega LED Beacons of which the VLB-67 with several solar powered options and recently renamed as the VLB-5 to reflect the 5 nautical mile range is the most frequently installed.
Vega has representatives based in Sydney, Singapore, Munich and Houston.
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways.
A sector light is a man-made pilotage and position fixing aid that consists of strictly delineated horizontal angle light beams to guide water-borne traffic through a safe channel at night in reasonable visibility. Sector lights are most often used for safe passage through shallow or dangerous waters. This may be when leaving or entering harbour. Nautical charts give all the required information.
Carlisle & Finch is a manufacturer of nautical equipment founded in 1894 in Cincinnati, Ohio where, as of 2024, it still has its headquarters. The company's main products through its entire history have been searchlights, mostly for marine applications. It was also known for navigation beacons used by airports and lighthouses.
The West Point Light, also known as the Discovery Park Lighthouse, is an active aid to navigation on Seattle, Washington's West Point, which juts into Puget Sound and marks the northern extent of Elliott Bay. The lighthouse is similar in design to the Point No Point Light and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977. It is a main feature of Seattle's Discovery Park.
The Nab Tower is a tower originally planned for anti-submarine protection in the English Channel in World War I. It was sunk over the Nab rocks east of the Isle of Wight to replace a lightship after the war, and is a well-known landmark for sailors as it marks the deep-water eastern entry into the Solent.
The Northern Lighthouse Board (NLB) is the general lighthouse authority for Scotland and the Isle of Man. It is a non-departmental public body responsible for marine navigation aids around coastal areas.
Point Pinos Lighthouse was lit on February 1, 1855, to guide ships on the Pacific Coast of California. It is the oldest continuously operating lighthouse on the West Coast of the United States and even the lens is original. Alcatraz Island Lighthouse preceded Point Pinos by eight months, but was replaced in 1909 by the expanding military prison. The Point Pinos Lighthouse is still an active United States Coast Guard aid to navigation. On-site museum exhibits and other lighthouse related functions are operated by the city of Pacific Grove, Monterey County, California. The lighthouse is surrounded by the Pacific Grove Municipal Golf Links.
Wood Island Light is an active lighthouse on the eastern edge of Wood Island in Saco Bay, on the southern coast of Maine. The light is just outside the entrance to Biddeford Pool and the end of the Saco River. The lighthouse is a 47-foot (14 m) conical white tower of granite rubble. The light itself sits 71 feet (22 m) above mean high water. Its automated beacon alternates between green and white every 10 seconds.
The DeTour Reef Light is a non-profit-operated lighthouse marking the southern entrance of the DeTour Passage between the eastern end of Michigan's Upper Peninsula and Drummond Island. The light is an automated active aid to navigation. It marks the northern end of Lake Huron. The passage is used by almost all of the Great Lakes commercial freighter traffic moving to and from Lake Superior, with approximately 5,000 vessel movements annually. It is said to be "the gateway to Lake Superior." In addition, many recreational boaters use the passage. The Light is located in Lake Huron, three miles (5 km) south of the nearest town, DeTour Village, Michigan.
The Harbor of Refuge Light is a lighthouse built on the ocean end of the outer Delaware Breakwater at the mouth of the Delaware Bay, just off Cape Henlopen. It was built to function with the Delaware Breakwater East End Light in order to mark the National Harbor of Refuge.
An airway beacon (US) or aerial lighthouse was a rotating light assembly mounted atop a tower. These were once used extensively in the United States for visual navigation by airplane pilots along a specified airway corridor. In Europe, they were used to guide aircraft with lighted beacons at night.
Aviation obstruction lighting is used to enhance the visibility of structures or fixed obstacles which may conflict with the safe navigation of aircraft. Obstruction lighting is commonly installed on towers, buildings, and even fences located in areas where aircraft may be operating at low altitudes. In certain areas, some aviation regulators mandate the installation, operation, color, and/or status notification of obstruction lighting. For maximum visibility and collision-avoidance, these lighting systems commonly employ one or more high-intensity strobe or LED devices which can be seen by pilots from many miles away from the obstruction.
Kõpu Lighthouse is one of the best-known symbols and tourist sites on the Estonian island of Hiiumaa. It is located in the village of Mägipe. It is one of the oldest lighthouses in the world, having been in continuous use since its completion in 1531. The lighthouse is quite unique with its shape and exceptional among lighthouses because it has gone through all the stages from a medieval landmark up to a modern electrified lighthouse.
The Highland Light is an active lighthouse on the Cape Cod National Seashore in North Truro, Massachusetts. The current tower was erected in 1857, replacing two earlier towers that had been built in 1797 and 1831. It is the oldest and tallest lighthouse on Cape Cod.
The Wood Islands Lighthouse is a historic lighthouse built by Donald MacMillan situated on the southeastern shore of Prince Edward Island, located in the community of Wood Islands. The lighthouse is a well-preserved three storey tower with an adjoining 1+1⁄2-storey keeper's residence. The white shingled tower is topped by a red iron lantern, which is enclosed by a white railing on the observation deck. The red roof of the dwelling provides a striking contrast to the white shingled exterior of the dwelling.
The VRB-25 is a lighthouse optical system designed and built by Vega Industries Ltd. in Porirua, New Zealand. It was originally designed in 1993–95 with the assistance of the United States Coast Guard to meet USCG requirements for a robust mechanism requiring minimum maintenance. It has become the Coast Guard's standard 12 volt rotating beacon. The company's literature says there are more than 400 installations worldwide. More than a quarter of the active lighthouses in Maine have one installed.
Double Island Point Light is an active lighthouse located at the summit of Double Island Point, a coastal headland within the Cooloola section of the Great Sandy National Park. It is located at the southern end of Wide Bay, 70 kilometres (43 mi) north of Noosa Heads, Queensland, Australia.
North Reef Light is an active lighthouse located on North Reef, a 5.6 square kilometres (2.2 sq mi) planar reef, about 120 kilometres (75 mi) northeast of Gladstone, Queensland, Australia in the Capricorn and Bunker Group. The lighthouse was constructed on a migratory patch of sand inside a fringing coral reef, which over the years disappeared and reappeared, as sand was washed away and accumulated, and is now a vegetated sandy island. Its construction is unique, having a hollow concrete base that both gives it resistance to the shifting nature of the sandbar and serves as a freshwater tank. As such, it is considered one of the major achievement in Australian lighthouse construction. It is also notable in that due to the harsh conditions, only bachelors were allowed to serve as lighthouse keepers. At 24 metres (79 ft) it is also the tallest of Queensland's timber-framed iron clad lighthouses.
An automatic lamp changer is a device used to ensure that a navigational light such as a marine lighthouse or aero beacon stays lit even if a bulb burns out. Numerous types exist. The common design elements are an array of two or more lamps, installed on a mounting which can rotate to various positions. Each position brings a different lamp into the focal point of an optical assembly. Since signal and navigational lights use sophisticated optics to focus the beam, lampchangers are designed to position the new bulb at the focal point with high precision. The device automatically detects when the currently active lamp has ceased to function and moves the next lamp into place.
The PEL sector light is a projector style marine beacon which is used to guide maritime vessels. It does this by projecting a colored sector out to sea with very sharp color changes as the mariner transitions from one sector to the next. Typical PEL sector lights will have a complete color change over 1 meter when the mariner is 5 km from the beacon. The PEL's application becomes relevant to the mariner when combined with a local marine chart as each application of a PEL varies greatly. They are used for guiding vessels into harbor, traffic separation or to illuminate hazards. The main advantage to a PEL sector light is that it has very sharp transitions between colors and is bright enough to be used in daylight with up to 10 Nautical Miles or 18.5 km visibility.