Differences between "bad" streamers and "good" streamers

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Zagarus Rashkae by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <arbitrarily_random-at-yahoo-dot-com>

Hi All,

I have recently built a Tesla coil and fired it up. At
best, it produced thin, wimpy, purple 36 inch
streamers at first light Specs can be found at
http://www.hot-streamer-dot-com/lulabs/Tesla.html
The power input is maybe 1.5-2.5 kW. I haven't
measured it yet.
Spark images are at
http://www.hot-streamer-dot-com/lulabs/images/sparks/
I don't know what is causing these sparks to be so
thin and purple. I have also noticed that sparks don't
break out easily without a breakout point. Is it
because I haven't tuned the coil right? Is it the
toroid? Is it the ground? Is it the capacitor? Input
power? Please help.

_