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Merry Christmas and Great Balls of Plasma

Posted by Rezwan on Dec 22, 2010 at 02:28 PM
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Solstice is down, Christmas is up next! “Free Floating Atmospheric Pressure Ball Plasmas” makes me think of tree ornaments. Try this at home! Enjoy.

CJ Wurden’s long-lived (300-400 msec) plasma orb - rises above a 2-gallon white plastic bucket containing a weak solution of Copper Sulfate salt in water. The green color is due to Cu I emission at 510.6 nm. A delicate thin orange-colored boundary layer, caused by interaction with air, surrounds the ball. Image take with a Nikon D200 camera, 70 mm lens, f16, ISO 100, exposure 1/250th second. The central electrode is dimly visible at the water surface, and insulated wire leads go over the lip of the bucket, to the right.

More info on CJW’s project:

Now that we have a fusion themed tie in for Christmas and Solstice, I feel I’ve missed the Hanukkah opportunity. There was something about the oil supply lasting 8 times longer than it should have. Fusion may be a factor (barring, of course, Divine intervention).

Happy holidays to all of you from all of us at the Focus Fusion Society.

Happy Solstice to Everyone from FFS.