Ask an Expert: The Challenges of Building an Infrared Camera

[@sylviedc889]

We are a team of astronomers having the goal of doing very high precision (0.1% in bands) photometry with big optical telescopes. Optical telescope accuracy on earth are limited by clouds, especially thin clouds that are difficults to detect. One solution could be the use of an infrared camera to make a map of clouds optical depth in telescope field of view. We tried an uncooled LWIR Camera (FLIR) . But it is very difficult. Perhaps a MWIR would have been a better choice according what you say on IR camera accuracy. Presently our goal is to measure radiances, not temperatures. From measured IR cloud radiance, one can predict the optical attenuation.

[@TheFaridrep]

Thank you for very much informative video. Knowing that you have expert knowledge in field of IR cameras, is it possible to use very thick germanium glass to shield flir lepton infrared camera module's lenses from water, dust, high/low temperatures and nearby explosions? Or maybe there are other ways to protect IR camera's lenses which you can share? Unfortunately i cannot use usual reinforced glass for infrared cameras because usual glass is not transparent for IR spectrum.

[@NAVALALUMNI-S1]

Night vision wall test system.