Lets see if this works

[zenbabe]

This is what happens when you have to much time on your hands.But I
submit this for peer review and the question " will it work" if so "
will I be able to get more than one shot out of it"

find a pvc pipe 20 feet long and 12 inches diameter. cut the ends
totally parallel to each other. glue a polished copper disk on one end
and a disk with a 3 inch hole on the other. Make sure these disks are
aligned with a laser pointer or something. melt some salt so when it
cools it looks like a 4 inch dish about an inch thick. glue it onto
the hole. Attach your bolt style electrodes into the cavity. So the
whole thing looks like a regular laser but bigger. Pump out the air,
backfill with co2 laser gas at 100-400 torrs. Hoist this thing on top
of tree. You have one electrode at ground and the other has magnet
wire the end of this magnet wire is a rocket from estes or something.
when a storm comes around and the lightning is close you know what to
do. I read that a lightning strike contains over a billion joules of
energy!! just multiply that by the standard co2 conversion efficiency
of 20% and you got yourself a laser that can make startrek captains
drool.