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[Parsely]

Paradoxically, thermal imagining equipment works somewhat worse in cold weather than in hot. The imaging equipment must be cooler than the surrounding environment in order to work. Otherwise the image is spammed by the device's own radiation. It detects differences in infrared or black-body heat as it contrasts in the environment. You can use similar technology to find hot-spots on a bucket full of molten gold.

The ones I used at work are cooled by a heat pump and constantly made a ticking sound. It radiated a great deal of heat on your face the whole time it did this, so it was nicer to use in the winter than the summer, but it gave you the same imagery either way.

You've used them before? That's awesome! Do you know what brand they were? I'm curious what they looked like. Also, what's your job? Hope you don't mind me asking.

[HAMMERMILL]

I used to work for a power company in Colorado, the IR scope was for used checking bad connections and fuses and whatever else was creating too much resistance (and heat) in high-voltage circuits.

They were some old thermals we used, they were FLIR Systems-brand, I don't remember the model though. It looked like a black box with camera lens and eyepiece and an awkward cord that plugged into a 12v battery pack.  Reminded me of an old-school early camcorder. I'm pretty it was designed to scope powerlines from a vehicle at a distance, but we used it for everything since it's what we had.

Thermal Imaging equipment is expensive! The optic lens are made from a huge, perfectly flawless synthetic sapphire and one little microfracture and it's ruined.

[Parsely]

I used to work for a power company in Colorado, the IR scope was for used checking bad connections and fuses and whatever else was creating too much resistance (and heat) in high-voltage circuits.

They were some old thermals we used, they were FLIR Systems-brand, I don't remember the model though. It looked like a black box with camera lens and eyepiece and an awkward cord that plugged into a 12v battery pack.  Reminded me of an old-school early camcorder. I'm pretty it was designed to scope powerlines from a vehicle at a distance, but we used it for everything since it's what we had.

Thermal Imaging equipment is expensive! The optic lens are made from a huge, perfectly flawless synthetic sapphire and one little microfracture and it's ruined.

That's incredibly interesting. I didn't know they were used for that kind of work.

[Jimmy]

All you need is for demand to be high enough for them, and the cost will drop rapidly. Synthetic sapphires are expensive because nobody's worked hard to drop their cost compared to their competitor, since there's no competition yet. Get enough people using it, and that'll change.