Yesterday at work we were talking about lightning and I recalled a PBS show about folks up on a mountain top trying to attract and thereby study lightning strikes. One of their techniques was to launch a rocket (with attached spooled wire) when a strike seemed imminent, directing the bolt to their study site. It was a pretty cool show. I was wondering if you could do something similar with the homemade water bottle rockets? Some of them, especially the two liter, attain pretty impressive altitude and might even be able to drag a small wire up with them. Messing with lightning is a really bad idea and you'd want a safe bunker, remote launch mechanism, and an updated will. NASA has been hunting lighting for years and I stumbled across an old article featuring one of their lightning hunting planes. Check out the score marks on the fusealage.

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