RE: Mysterious Streamers (fwd)

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2007 22:30:49 -0500
From: David Thomson <dwt@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: 'Tesla list' <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: RE: Mysterious Streamers (fwd)

Hi Gary,

> The camera was hand-held, and apparently no attempt was made 
> to keep it steady.  The exposure time was 1 second.  A lot of 
> territory can be panned within that duration. 

If you are saying the camera was aimed at the street light and
then panned into the direction of the Tesla coil, all in one
second, then you are talking about a different photo than what we
are discussing here.  

In the photo being discussed, there are light emitting streamers
emanating from the top load of the Tesla coil.  These light
emitting streamers do not show a wide pan from the street light
to the Tesla coil.

In the image being discussed, there is also a light emitting (or
reflecting) orange haze surrounding the top load.  There are four
or five clear vertical light rays to the left and above the top
load.  In the orange haze there are about a dozen mostly vertical
striations beginning near the center and developing toward the
left of the top load. 

> That's why nothing in the background is visible. 

We must be talking about different photos, because the photo
here:
http://www.wackorama.com/teslalist/oddstreamers.JPG
shows at least five different faces and a clearly defined camera
tripod in the background.  

> The image of the Tesla 
> coil was frozen by the strobe, because it was within the 
> range of the strobe, and because it emits no light of its 
> own.  But the street lights, emitting their own light, are 
> not frozen, but appear as orange pulsing curvy lines, curves 
> corresponding to the motion of the hand-held camera.

Why are there four light streaks, then?  Were there four street
lamps?  Also, as I mentioned, the streamers also produce light.
Why didn't they streak like the street lamp if the camera had
been panned that far?  Also, why can't we see the actual street
lamp in the image?  If the light is actually the street lamp, we
should see something resembling the light housing and glass lens.


None of what you are saying fits together.  

I don't disagree that the street light is causing the streak, but
it is not because of a direct pan of the camera.  The four
different orange light trails would have four different
perspectives if they came from four different widely spaced
lamps.  And if they came from the same lamp, what kind of lens
geometry would place the beginning of each light trail in such a
strange arrangement?  Whereas three of the light trails have
segments, one of the light trails appears solid. 

> Are you proposing that light propagates in some unique manner 
> near Tesla coils, which is not apparent with the naked eye, 
> but produces bizarre artifacts on film?  Remarkable that no 
> one has noticed this before!

If you read my post, you would understand my hypothesis has
nothing to do with the way light propagates.  My hypothesis is
that something is creating a reflective surface for the light.
The propagation of light would be completely normal, it is the
source of the reflections that appears unusual.

As for not noticing this before, why would you say that?  Others
have reported similar types of photographs.  Also, we are all
familiar (most of us anyway) with atmospheric lensing effects.
Ice crystals, inversion layers, clouds, and convection are just a
few of the many causes for altering the reflectivity of light
through the atmosphere.

I could be wrong, but there probably is atmosphere surrounding
the coil.  And it is probable that the Tesla coil is ionizing the
gases in that atmosphere.  And these ionized gases may be
influenced by the resonant electric field of the top load.  There
is certainly visible evidence to support this hypothesis in the
photo.  

If anybody is calling out zebras and unicorns, it's the people
claiming the camera panned across the street light in a one
second exposure and managed to ignore the Tesla coil streamers
until the flash came on.  

David W. Thomson 
Quantum AetherDynamics Institute