oh wow, I looked at some older topics...13k, dang for some reason I don't see why they're so expensive, lol, obviously I have no idea, well I have some idea maybe, but to me they seem far too overpriced. At the microbiology lab I work at, a real time pcr which is a maybe 400kUSD, but its able to detect the amount of radiation or light that is emitted during dna synthesis. That type of detecting system I can understand, but thermal optics don't seem to be too complicated, its only detecting heat. maybe I'm missing something, but I thought thermal optics were commonly used in the military? well not commonly, but were at least availible