Re: and oddity or a normality?

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

Original poster: Mark Broker <mbroker-at-thegeekgroup-dot-org> 

Your toroid is probably too high and not properly shielding the top turns 
of the secondary.  Many builders recommend space-winding the last few turns 
gradually (each turn has a wider spacing) to avoid this problem.  I have no 
idea if the idea has merit or is just another Tesla Coiling myth, but I 
have used it on the 3 secondaries I've wound.

Try lowering the toroid by half its current height above the top secondary 
turn to see if the problem gets better.  You will probably have to retune a 
bit.

I have seen corona problems with slightly out of tune TCs, too.

Good luck,

Mark Broker
Chief Engineer, The Geek Group

On Sun, 30 Nov 2003 11:42:35 -0700, Tesla list <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com> wrote:

>Original poster: "Christopher 'CajunCoiler' Mayeux" <cajuncoiler-at-cox-dot-net> 
>A couple of hours after first light, it was finally dark enough
>outside that I could finally fire it up again, and see all that
>the streamers were doing, big and small.
>
>That's when I noticed something that intrigued me severely... there
>was a constant corona discharge going on, between the top secondary
>winding and the strike rail.  Not intense enough to form a full-on
>streamer, but more of a lavender glow, that was all the way around
>like an electric veil/curtain.
>
>Is this a common phenomenon?  Or am I seeing something rare?
>---
>Christopher 'CajunCoiler' Mayeux
>http://www.cajuncoiler.tk