First light

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <rblaisdell-at-juno-dot-com>

Hey, 
I have seen my first light within the last week.  We started to work on
the coil about a month ago.
Have a homebuilt capacitor that seems to be holding up pretty good.  I am
running a 15kv 30ma nst for the time being, but have to more 15kv 30ma
nsts and two 9kv 30ma nsts.  
Right now we are getting 20-24" streamers.  

the specs:
1-15kv-30ma nst
2 safety gaps(1 from each output) to rf ground firing every 5sec or more
1 homeade approx ( have not measured it) .005 microfarad capacitor
120mils of polystyrene for  
                  dielectric 10" x 10" aluminum plates overlapping area
9"x10" 15 plates. 
1/4" copper tubing  primary flat archimedes spiral  tapped at 12 turns
4.25" secondary with approx 900 turns of 22ga enameled wire 25.5" long
grounded to one  1/2" copper tube driven 12" in to ground
aluminum duct toroid 4" tube 12" outer 8"inner

My questions are
Can I expect to get longer streamers with the three 15kvs hooked up in
parallel without changing my tank cap?  I could fairly easily add some
plates to my cap once I get some more polystyrene.

After running the coil last night for about an hour off and on every few
minutes to  photograph , it got real weak and would only jump out big
from the toroid when first plugged in, then only 3" sparks would come out
all around the torroid.  Today it was running ok again.  I am thinking
that the capacitor has warmed up and capacitance has changed. I tried
retuning it but did not help. Does anyone have clues as to whats going
on?

Peace,
Ry Blaisdell