Yeah I’d thought of drones right away too – but those are being criminalized so rapidly esp. in the USA from what I hear… and drones can draw a lot of attention esp. in certain areas.

DVD-writer lasers are, if I recall, not visible to the naked eye, which makes them quite dangerous (cheesy video apparently confirms this, at the end) to be paired with a visible light or dollar-store visible laser pointer, to set up the aim. Then just leave the DVD laser on for a few minutes or however long it would take to burn out the CCD.