A heliograph (Greek: Ἥλιος helios, meaning "sun", and γραφειν graphein, meaning "write") is a wireless solar telegraph that signals by flashes of sunlight (generally using Morse code) reflected by a mirror. The flashes are produced by momentarily pivoting the mirror, or by interrupting the beam with a shutter. The heliograph was a simple but effective instrument for instantaneous optical communication over long distances during the late 19th and early 20th century. Its main uses were military, survey and forest protection work. Heliographs were standard issue in the British and Australian armies until the 1960s, and were used by the Pakistani army as late as 1975.

There were many heliograph types. Most heliographs were variants of the British army Mance Mark V version (Fig.1). It used a mirror with a small unsilvered spot in the centre. The sender aligned the heliograph to the target by looking at the reflected target in the mirror and moving his head until the target was hidden by the unsilvered spot. Keeping his head still, he then adjusted the aiming rod so its cross wires bisected the target. He then turned up the sighting vane, which covered the cross wires with a diagram of a cross, and aligned the mirror with the tangent and elevation screws so the small shadow that was the reflection of the unsilvered spot hole was on the cross target. This indicated that the sunbeam was pointing at the target.

Chris Zabriskie (born March 10, 1982 in Olympia, Washington) is an American composer and musician.

Chris Zabriskie got his musical start in a noise rock duo Struggleburger, but went solo unexpectedly at a show in 2001 when the other members of the band did not show up.

In 2007, Zabriskie recorded We Were Wrong under the name lo-fi is sci-fi with Marc Sirdoreus (better known as Marc with a C). The music video for the first single, "The Script You Wrote is Terrible," won praise for its simple presentation and Zabriskie's deadpan performance.

In 2009, he turned his attention towards instrumental music, first releasing The Dark Glow of the Mountains. The album's stark electronic minimalism was a departure from his previous work. Two more instrumental albums, I Am a Man Who Will Fight for Your Honor and Preludes followed in the same year. He continues to release new ambient music on a regular basis.

Zabriskie self-releases his albums on his website and is also a vocal supporter of BitTorrent and file sharing, and has said that he leaks his own records to various torrent sites in advance of their release dates. As of March 2009, Zabriskie offers free downloads of all of his music on his website. In 2011, Zabriskie joined WMFU's Free Music Archive and changed the Creative Commons license on his music to be much more permissive and open.