tabletop coil first light

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Original poster: hue jass <chesscactuar@xxxxxxxxx>

Hello

I got my new coil running today. the specs are as follows: 9/30 NST power 
supply, 5 segment spark gapmade with copper couplings, ~7nF beer bottle 
cap, 8 turn primary made with 1/4" copper tubing (tapped at about turn 
5.5), secondary coil form is 1.86" OD PVC pipe, 740 turns 28 AWG magnet 
wire (~10" winding length), topload is a 2.5 inch sphere ( plan on getting 
a bigger topload) first time i turned it on i got about 2" streamers. With 
a little bit of tuning i got 3" streamers and 5" sparks to a flourescent 
light bulb. I have 2 questions: 1. How much of an improvement could i 
expect with an 8pF topload and 2. would electrical tape help control corona 
around the edge of my beer bottles? Also, strikes to a flourescent light 
bulb where bright blue and there was almost no heating of the bottles, 
which leads me to believe that beer bottle caps aren't such a bad option. 
Thanks for the help.

Blake