Open Day 2010 had a crowd of about 70 to see the high voltage displays

For the Home Open day 2010, I got in the pool and also exploded watermelons. I had the usual array of projects set up indoors and various high voltage displays behind barriers. The Tesla coil was the highlight and double exposures under the Tesla coil were popular. There were about 70 people who came through. Maybe it was the free beer…
“Continue reading” for highlights of the displays. 3 videos and 18 photos.

Exploding watermelons is a noisy, messy business.

Lots of people brought cameras to Open Day 2010.

Justin Johnston and Wilson Lim having a bit of a yawn…

Michael Terren with a big volume control that goes up to 250.

Sammy with an anatomy description. Must be the silly hat.

Spark “double exposures” are actually a single exposure. Start camera exposure with Tesla coil off in darkness. The subjects poses are caught by a front curtain flash. The flash is the cue for them to run away in darkness. The camera is still exposing but it is dark. Then the Tesla coil fires for about 5 seconds after everyone is safely away. Exposure ends.
So there is a flash photo of the scene with sparks in darkness superimposed. Easy.

Those sparks make you jump.