Corona Discharge Photography
51,418
Published 2022-10-07
The high voltage AC doesn't conduct through the glass, but causes high voltage charges to appear on the outside surface of the glass plates through capacitave coupling. Because glass is an electrical insulator, the charges can't move freely along the surface, so when an electrode connected to ground comes near the glass, the resulting discharge "fans" out, as charges from a relatively large area will jump to a single point electrode.
When a flat conductive object is pressed against the glass, the edges and small bumps on its surface will exhibit this type of discharge and glow purple. Since the glass plates and the saltwater are transparent, the resulting glow can easily be photographed.
This results in some extremely interesting and visually impressive effects, but is mostly limited to flat conductive objects like coins, keys, blades, etc.
I've seen some videos that use acrylic insulators for doing this - which I strongly advise against, because the discharges will heat up and melt the acrylic - leaving a permanent mark or even burning a hole through the sheet.
Also, if you want to do this project and you're building an AC flyback, be mindful of the secondary coil inductance and its resonant frequency. I found that by having an enormous turns ratio at a high frequency, the transformer operating frequency was actually well above the resonant frequency between the coil and any parasitic capacitance - which causes tremendous losses and erratic performance - this problem is avoided with the solid state tesla coil.
Music Used:
Serge Pavkin - To the Stars
Serge Pavkin - Atmospheric Ambient
Serge Pavkin - Andromeda
Serge Pavkin - Cosmic Glow
All Comments (21)
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Interesting project and very cool footage. While watching (for example the coins) I really wanted to have a closer look at the micro-discharges that were dancing around on the surface. If you get the chance, maybe try a closer macro shot or show it under a microscope. I think you will be able to record even more spectaculair imagery.
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"It leaves burn marks on the outer layers of my skin." Now, that's hard-core!
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I always wondered how this worked, thanks for the explanation and demonstration. By the way, that coin isn't a "British pound" but a 50 pence coin. You need two of them if you want a pound.
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Oh man, this would look beautiful as a store front if scaled up. No digital blandness, pure real gas discharge generating beautiful colours and wonderful moving textures.
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Awesome content lately HSP... I commend your work, very inspiring!
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Wow, really interesting! I've never seen this before. I came to this channel for the submarines and stayed for all the other cool stuff you do 😁
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Mind blowing effects... Also weird thing as I was just watching other video about corona discharge when you uploaded this video and now I want to make one of this, I think I still have my old high frequency AC somewhere as I was using it for other project...
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Very interesting. Like nature's way of "dithering" those coins!
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I love how it crystallizes
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This is a bloody fantastic video 💪
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You,sir,are a legend.🙏❤️
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why isn't this channel popular. this stuff great.
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Beautiful results 👍😃
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This look awesome, great work <3
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I love this but it’s beyond my skill set. Thanks for these interesting videos.
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Dude your content is really interesting and informative keep up the good work!
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Simply beautiful
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okay well.. I take back what I said. this is absolutely sick. and now I wish I had a coin collection. amazing stuff man cheers.
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I really like your videos
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¡Geniously crafted! Keep with this content!
