Dan Robinson
I've posted about these before, but tonight the dry air inside my house and some other unknown factor(s) have resulted in extreme conditions for static electricity discharges. Using the blanket/hair charge separation method, I have been getting unbelievably long sparks - the longest non-machine (non Tesla/Van De Graaff, etc) generated sparks I have seen. Sparks reaching up to a foot in length were common tonight!
These sparks are amazingly intricate and beautiful, with hundreds of crisp upward-branching channels above a brighter main channel which terminates on your skin surface. I know this sounds geeky, but trust me, if you have any appreciation for lightning and have never seen these, you are missing out!
Photographing these with conventional cameras is proving problematic, despite their visual brightness to the naked eye. The only way I can get any images of these is with the VX2100, iris wide open and shutter speed down to 1/4 of a second. This yields a very grainy, almost useless image except to show the size and shape of these miniature upward-moving discharges. They are near-exact miniature 'replicas' of the upward-branching lightning common with TV towers and antennas.
Here is one of the longest ones I was able to catch with the camera. My entire hand is visible in this shot which provides a reference point for the scale. The spark actually extends past the top of the frame. The bright section of the spark is a little less than 2 inches long. The branching begins at the top of the bright section of channel.
Here are a couple more grabs. The longest of these is around 8 inches from the base to top of the branching. Again, the bright lower section is between 1 and 2 inches long.
http://wvlightning.com/stuff/sparks06a.jpg
http://wvlightning.com/stuff/sparks06f.jpg
To create these, you need to drag a dry blanket over your head and hold your fist about a foot in front of your face. I know that sounds funny, but it works.
These sparks are amazingly intricate and beautiful, with hundreds of crisp upward-branching channels above a brighter main channel which terminates on your skin surface. I know this sounds geeky, but trust me, if you have any appreciation for lightning and have never seen these, you are missing out!
Photographing these with conventional cameras is proving problematic, despite their visual brightness to the naked eye. The only way I can get any images of these is with the VX2100, iris wide open and shutter speed down to 1/4 of a second. This yields a very grainy, almost useless image except to show the size and shape of these miniature upward-moving discharges. They are near-exact miniature 'replicas' of the upward-branching lightning common with TV towers and antennas.
Here is one of the longest ones I was able to catch with the camera. My entire hand is visible in this shot which provides a reference point for the scale. The spark actually extends past the top of the frame. The bright section of the spark is a little less than 2 inches long. The branching begins at the top of the bright section of channel.
Here are a couple more grabs. The longest of these is around 8 inches from the base to top of the branching. Again, the bright lower section is between 1 and 2 inches long.
http://wvlightning.com/stuff/sparks06a.jpg
http://wvlightning.com/stuff/sparks06f.jpg
To create these, you need to drag a dry blanket over your head and hold your fist about a foot in front of your face. I know that sounds funny, but it works.
