Great topic Tom.

Upon futher review.

Based on some further reading I am guessing that the soldering iron glow is NOT thermal but falls into the very narrow range of the IR spectrum(below 1000 nm's, which is the range of a camera sensor too) that is considered not to be emitted by the heat of the object.  I ran across a couple of articles that finally whacked me in the head and got my attention.  And I suppose this is where, in my mind, where it is confusing because that soldering iron is hot but this part of the spectrum the light will not heat.   I think it must have something to do with the time/space continuem.  Where's Q when you need him?

Seems my example was a bit misleading, but still shows that if the object is hot enough your that camera will detect more infrared.

I have developed a headache thinking about it so I am going back to my original hypothesis.  ITS MAGIC!!!!!!

Anyway, its a great way to another view of things.

Mike