I have made Christmas "trees" in 2007 and 2009 highlighted by Tesla coil sparks.  This year the new project will be very different.

Bike Xmas tree 2010
 This tree for 2010 is powered by the World's brightest Bike lights.  

Press release 1: Topic Xmas, World's brightest bike lights
Meet Dr Peter Terren from Bunbury, Australia. A mild mannered medical specialist by day, by night he becomes an eccentric physics boffin.  His high voltage antics and particularly his unusual electrical Christmas trees have been seen in media around the globe. This year he has turned down the voltage but turned up the brightness. His latest creation, he claims, is the World's most powerful bicycle lights. At around the same brightness as 10 standard car headlights, it is far too bright to be allowed on the road. Peter explains that he has used the latest modern light emitting diode technology. These LEDs are a huge 100 watts each and he uses 18 of them, each with it's own cooling fan. The resulting 100,000 lumens of light power is many times more powerful than any other bike light and is being considered by Guinness World Records. Put another way, it is like having 5000 small LED flashlights on your bike. But hey, there's more! Peter has included coloured LEDs to enable any combination of colours from the front or rear lights.
It seems like it has attracted a jolly visitor in a red suit from up North to take it for a spin.

Press release 2: Topic Xmas, World's brightest bike lights
Well, we thought we'd seen it all but this is just bizarre. Dr Peter Terren is normally better known for his dazzing high voltage electricity displays shown around the world. He's even made some dramatic Christmas trees with lighning like sparks. But, this year he decided to put a Christmas tree on a bicycle. However this is no ordinary bike. This one has a lighting system on steroids.  It is far too bright to go on roads and is about 10 times the brightness of your average family car's high beam. He does this with the latest light emitting diode technology - we know them as LEDs. These ones are huge and 18 of them draw 1800 watts.  Peter says the massive current draw means battery life is not good. Three deep cycle industrial batteries last about 10 minutes. I usually keep a spare clipped to my belt he quips. (at 33kg we think that sounds unlikely).
Calculations show that these bike lights would be able to be seen from space with the same intensity as a bright star. "I would love to send some morse code to the International Space Station"
So, why make something like this?  Peter say he likes to push the boundaries and this project fitted in with his electrical experience and capabilities as the new technology became available. He also rides a bike at night which gave him inspiration. "I have had kangaroos jump out in front of me so this gives me the upper hand".
Peter has applied to Guinness World Records for this super bike light.
In the meantime he is letting a few people have a ride, like this jolly fellow in a red suit who dropped in.

Explanatory note:
By the way, I really have had kangaroos jump out at me particularly on the hospital grounds where they like to come for the lush grass. (most recently on Jan 1st 2010) Interestingly they are used to cars and trucks but get spooked by a cyclist.

Construction
Mostly this is covered in the World's brightest Bike lights.

Above shows the first concepts and testing of the fishing rod partly covered in tinsel.

Above: colourful but frog-like.

Special effects
The front array has single red green and blue LEDs which enable a selection of colours from these primary ones. Similarly the rear array also has the same colour LEDs which allows a variety of colours as well.  The rear LEDs can be raised to point vertically and they also have a much broader focus.  This allows the Xmas tree to be lit fom below.

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This photo in the media.
GWN regional TV covered this in a news program, on December 23rd 2010. Video here
Channel 7 covered this on December 24th 2010.

Online newspaper articles in major papers of Sydney Morning Herald , Brisbane Times and The Age plus regional papers including Areanews Banyuleandnillumbikweekly Barossaherald Batemansbaypost Baysidebulletin Bendigo Advertiser Bombalatimes Boorowanewsonline Bordermail  Braidwoodtimes Busseltonmail Camdencourier caseyweeklyberwick Centraladvocate Centralwesterndaily Thecityweekly Coastaltimes Cobarage Colypointobserver Coomaexpress Cootamundraherald The Courier  Crookwellgazette Dailyadvertiser Greaterdandenongweekly Devonporttimes Donnybrookmail Esperanceexpress Eyretribune Farmonline Theflindersnews Forbesadvocate Frankston Weekly Greatlakesadvocate Goulburnpost Gloucesteradvocate Hepburnadvocate Humeweekly Illawarramercury Theislanderonline Islandofcontrast Knoxweekly Lakesmail Latrobevalleyexpress Lithgowmercury  Macarthuradvertiser Macedonrangesweekly  Macleayargus Manningrivertimes Margaretrivermail Maribyrnongweekly Meandervalleynews Melbourneweeklyportphillip Melbournetimesweekly Melbourneweeklyeastern Melbourneweekly  Meltonweekly Merimbulanewsonline Monashweekly Mudgeeguardian Murrayvalleystandard Muswellbrookchronicle Myallcoastnota Nambuccaguardian Narrominenewsonline Northernargus Northernmidlandsnews Thenortherntimes Northernweekly Northweststar Nynganobserver Oberonreview Penrithstar Portlincolntimes Portpirierecorder Portstephensexaminer Queanbeyanage RHSGnews Theridgenews Riverinaleader  Roxbydownssun Sconeadvocate Southernweekly  Southwestadvertiser  Sunraysiadaily Summitsun Tastamartimes Tenterfieldstar Townandcountrymagazine Transcontinental Ulladullatimes Victorharbortimes Waginargus WAtoday Wellingtontimes Whyallanewsonline WimmeraMailtimes Westernherald Winghamchronicle Wollondillyadvertiser and the West.
Websites include Stuff.co.nz, Chairforcengineer Topix  New-zealand    Treehugger  Daylife  Hdlns  Actualtechnologydot   Congoo   Guinness.firstblogfirst  twitter  Connect.in  Examiner  Allvoices  Optuszoo  Onenewspage    Ozcrunch  Kiwi247  Allvoices  Jorbit Wotnews Businessinsider Friendfeed Terrystechnologypage  Mybiz.optus    Endless-sphere     Cmblog  Silobreaker 24dunia 360reports 7bay   Connected-community-hackerspace NZcity  Sydneycyclist Nobmob Bicycles  Mybiz  Treehugger.com/quote WD6ezc Cultshit  Iplextra Bicycles  Glosnet Photographymethod Pacc Energymatters LCDdisplayvideos  Manlydig Ledstriplights Cyclingcrowd Ata       
      

There was a radio interview with 4BC Queensland Australia on December 26th 2010 as well.

If you're looking for Christmas cards, Vistaprint has lots of  custom card ideas to impress your friends and family this season.
Add a family favorite photo or even the one below.

Tesla Christmas tree 2009

This year I did another Xmas tree based on the success of the one I did in 2007. I made it bigger (9m = 30 ft) and more spectacular by using a different technique.   It still uses a long exposure (2 min) and a rotating colored filter with the tree shape outlined by sparks from a rotating rod on top of the Tesla coil. This gives the "Eye of Sauron" effect. Imagine then if that rotating rod is able to be raised from horizontal to vertical while still rotating.

Early ideas 2009
Here is a shot of my big Tesla coil with a rotating rod of about 7 ft being raised and a 63 second exposure taken.  No colours or star yet, just a huge bushy tree of bright sparks (near the ground) and less bright streamers higher up.

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Problem is that when colours are applied, the sparks are brighter than the streamers.

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The streamers have poor colour saturation, particularly in the desirable tree color of green.  So a modification was called for to allow continuous sparks towards the end of the rod.

Getting closer.  This is an example of continuous sparks rather than streamers. The colors are more intense and any color looks good. There is a minor problem in that the sparks are bunched up.  Depending on how the filters are shifted the above effects can be seen depending how the filter wheel rotated and how fast,

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Here is another version closer to the desired effect. More spherical in shape but more tree like with the TC secondary being the trunk. Now just have to tidy up and fit Santa in. Oh, and make a star...

The Star 2009

 
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The left photo above shows the 10 dead fluorescent tubes covered with orange cellophane that comprise the final star. This is strung up by ropes so that it is 30 feet to to top point.  The center photo shows the star lit by induced currents only. The right photo shows the star lit with direct flow of current from the TC to earth via the star and is much brighter. So much so that it leaves a prominent lens flare duplicate of the star. This is actually present in the final photo as well but is covered by a lot of other sparks.  There is a lot of blurring due to wind here.

But to go back to the beginning of the star development ....
This caused me a lot of angst. I did try with burning CD's with only partial success.

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The left photo shows a simple small (5 ft) star made of CD's.  They did work as expected (right photo) but would probably start burning with flames towards the end of a run.  A bigger star might use 50 CD's or more and doesn't allow for many trial runs.

Above is an animated gif of the burning CD's in a simple linear star. It works but is a bit tedious.

Construction 2009
Here is a shot of  the first version. You can see the nylon line that lifts the arm in an arc particularly in the middle photo. It is attached to a rope between the trees.

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The rotating arm is shown here from a lowered position to midway then up fully.

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Here, I have attached a small spray of fibreoptic lights which show the spiral course of the tip of the arm.

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The left photo shows me casting a fishing line aiming for a space in the upper branches.  This was used to pull through a rope between two trees which gives me a suspension point 9 m (30 ft) in the air. In fact this was too low and I later aimed for the highest branches at 14m (45 ft).  A convenient "skyhook" to hang the star and also the wire that elevates the rotating rod.  The top of the star ended up at 9m (30 ft) for this tree which was twice the height of the 2007 tree.

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This shows the pulley arrangement attached to the rope which is earthed (grounded) by the black wire that goes to RF earth in the right photo which is a pipe hammered a few feet into the ground.

 
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The left photo above shows a close up of a double exposure with my foot and sparks hitting the ground.  The center photo shows Santa checking framing and focus. It only just fits on my 18mm lens.  Note the rotating filter in front.  Santa's helper is in the right photo - the wife Jane - who controls whether I live or die.  She calls it "quality time".

Special effects 2009
This is how its done. The cameras exposure starts now and will remain open for 2 minutes recording any light that happens in that time.

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First there is a flash of Santa with the Tesla coil power OFF. He never gets close to any sparks because it is dangerous, remember.  Small point is that the rod is hidden behind the Tesla coil  which is well illuminated.  For this to work the area behind Santa needs to be far away and black so it doesn't get lit by sparks and show up on top of Santa in the long exposure.

Next, Santa turns on the rotating rod and runs away! In darkness so you don't see that on camera. The filter is changed to green and the Tesla coil turned on. 

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The composite demo shot illustrates the rotating rod in view and sparks from the rod to the ground. After some rotation the filter has been changed to green so the only illumination (the sparks) is now green.  In the actual shot you never see the rotating rod because it is never still in one spot so just blurs out of view.

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Ooops, In this demo shot I tripped over the camera tripod in the dark and ended up with a double image above.  Nevertheless, it does demonstrate the several rotations of green at the base. In the actual shot, the TC is turned off while  I (Santa) pulled on the line to raise the rotating rod and rotating the green filter to red.  Note the star is lit brightly as all current is now passing through it.  It overexposes but time was too short to fix that and it just makes it appear brighter.

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Then all that remains (above) is to continue to raise the rod while changing to yellow and then green filters in turn. Then the exposure is stopped using a radio remote to avoid jitter. Total exposure 2 minutes, f/7.1, ISO 500 on 12 MPx Nikon D300

Needless to say there is a lot happening in 120 seconds.  It needs reasonable timing in near complete darkness. So quite a lot of trial runs and stuff ups.

This photo in the media 2009
This made it to one local newspaper and one TV shoot. That is a bit disappointing really as I missed out on at least 3 TV shoots and 3 newspaper articles just in Australia due to the cost of having to pay for it now that I have an agent. Giving it out for free seems to be the way to go for best coverage. 
It made it to some online newspaper sites however and about 110 websites including: 
  WAtoday Western Australia
  Telegraph "Perhaps the most impressive tree we've seen this year..."
  TheSun UK
  http://digg.com/odd_stuff/Those_aren_t_Xmas_lights_THESE_are_Xmas_lights
  Microsiervos
The links to the other 100 or so websites are here - search for "Xmas 09".
Google search for "Xmas" keyword was 21 of 24,000,000 hits in Aug 2010
Google search for "Xmas" images was 313 out of 30,000,000 Jul 2010.
Shown as a Win/Channel 9 TV news item in Western Australia on 21/12/09. Reported by Tiffany Wertheimer. Filmed by Dean Lomax with video effects by Jordan.  Video runs 1:18 mins.

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Tesla Christmas tree 2007
Here's my earlier version. Still generated by a Tesla coil but in a different way.

Merry Christmas!  This is a single photo from a Nikon D70s digital camera and is a 91 second exposure of a real functioning Tesla coil and is the result of perhaps 50 hours of preparation.  It is cropped but otherwise completely untouched.  It is not, repeat not, photoshopped. It does however achieve the result using special effects which I will explain.   
Discovery Channel Canada shot the construction and running of this as a 5 minute video segment which aired on Dec 20 2007 in Canada.

   (click for Video Windows Media Player 2 mins, 370k)

Above is the very dull video showing the sparks being patiently and slowly guided inside the confines of the frame. Otherwise there is complete darkness until the final flash that illuminates me at the end when I am in position.  There are no color filters on the video. Imagine all the sparks you see adding up to the final photo.

Early ideas  2007
I planned to have a large tree shape made of sparks topped by a 5 pointed star to simulate a conventional Christmas tree.

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Here is an early setup in testing showing the less than full sized frame of the tree.  By making sparks between the rod that I control and the frame, I should get a tree shape. Various testing was done to work out the best techniques.

The Star first attempt 2007
The star will be as high as possible.  To do this I have had to have a much higher support than before.  To do this I have strung a rope between two trees about 20 feet at the ends.  This won't support a large weight but may stabilize a tall structure. 

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As a test I have mounted my Nikon D70s camera in a small Faraday cage so I can take a picture looking directly down on the Tesla coil.  This "skycam" is shown suspended about 17 feet in the air ie 10 feet above the TC using a wide angle lens. It is in a custom support which is rain/sun/EMF resistant yet able to pass IR from the font to allow the long distance remote control to work. Also the flash can be used.

In testing how to best represent the star in sparks, the TC for the star photos below had 5 x 6 foot earthed vertical rods which protrude roughly level with my short rotating breakout point. The gap from breakout point to rotating rod is only about 2 feet in the top photo. I couldn't have it too wide or the camera won't fit it in. These shots are looking down on the coil from above.  A rare view for a Tesla coil.

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This star is more floral than astronomical so I didn't use it.  It hasn't been as star shaped as I would have liked. Everything except the sparks are blurred because there was wind moving the camera - even at 10 pm when I had my final shot. Hence the round toroid and the circle of the breakout points are odd shapes.  So on to further planning for a better star using the frame method.....

Construction 2007

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The left photo shows the frame with a star pattern held there by wire and fishing line.  You can't see the star well as the line is very fine so it doesn't show up in the photo. The tree is a bit smaller than I had hoped for but the whole thing is still 15ft high. The right photo shows me holding a 3.2 m (10 ft) fishing rod with the end wired to the Tesla coil.  I use this to place sparks to the frame.  There is an earthed cable clipped on halfway.  Probably unnecessary but is a safety measure.  There is also a fine earth wire not seen here trailing between me and the TC.

Special effects 2007
The main special effect is that of a long exposure (91 seconds) so that all sparks in a certain period get into the picture. During this time if the sparks are made to go anywhere in the tree shape then they will show up on the final photo.

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The photos above show some early results with a green filter. The different colors are achieved by using my color filter setup. This gets changed during exposure and in the final shot the tree trunk sparks are red, the tree shaped sparks are green and the star sparks are golden.

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The left photo shows the color filter setup in front of the camera that will need to be rotated manually at the correct time to change colors. The center photo shows the black screen that I am behind for almost all of the exposure except for the flash at the end.  Not really sure if it was needed. The right photo shows me in the Santa costume. Inflatable and cost $29.99. Some unkind person intimated that I was well, portly, not realizing it was inflatable.

One of my sons runs the camera and does the filter rotations at my signal, my other son does the video and my wife does the high voltage on/off, adjusting the voltage to give strong consistent sparks. After a few 90+ second runs the tungsten contacts had worn down and needed readjustment.

This photo in the media 2007
Generated 100,000 hits to my site in 1 week.
Shown in  Metro newspaper page 3 article in UK 7 Dec 2007  (1.7 million readers).

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Discovery Channel TV episode 4 shown Dec 20, 2007 in Canada. Cameraman Dean Lomax shot this also in around 6 hours. Topic is the Tesla Christmas tree. If you are in Canada (only) you can watch it here otherwise watch it here.  Video runs 5 mins. 

 
View count:

The links to the other 80 or so websites are here - search for "Xmas TC".
Google search for "Xmas" images 4th of 54,000,000 hits in May 2008. Has dropped to No 130 out of 11,000,000 in Aug 2010.
Google search for "Xmas" keyword was 21 of 24,000,000 hits in Aug 2010