A new and useful lighting system is provided, that is particularly useful as a lighting system for a deck (e.g. a ship deck), where pilots taking off from or landing on the deck often use night vision goggles. In addition, a new and useful optical projection structure for a portion of the lighting system is provided. The lighting system comprises at least a pair of lighting subsystems that project light to a volume space with different spatial distributions. One subsystem projects light to the volume space with a predetermined spatial distribution, and the other lighting subsystem projects light to the volume space with a different spatial distribution, in a manner that effectively supplements the projected light from the first subsystem, so as to provide a lighting system that effectively illuminates the entire volume space. Moreover, the system is designed to be particularly compatible with the optical capabilities of night vision goggles. The system is designed to substantially filter out light in a predetermined wavelength band that is “out of band” of night vision goggles (i.e. the wavelength band at which light vision goggles operate), so that the projected light effectively illuminates the deck, and does not interfere with the vision of pilots who are using night vision goggles. The new optical projection structure is particularly useful in projecting light from a source (e.g. an array of light emitting diodes [“LEDs”]) to a volume space, while minimizing the overall size of the projection structure, and maintaining good projection efficiency.