In answer to the question "why would any sane person bother?"
Firstly: I make no such claims (and I have been tested more than once and avoided incarceration). Secondly: My younger sister sent me a text on the morning stating how cold it was up in Kuluin near Maroochydore in Queensland at only 21 degrees (a summer heatwave locally) that morning. Hence my silly images to send to her when she was complaining about the cold.
It was a slightly brisk night and I was awake most of it (despite enough sleeping medication to knock out an elephant) and I considered taking my camera out before dawn to get a few shots of Orion but eventually decided against it because I'd have been lucky to get 2 shots before it iced up (camera and lens coming from a warm room). I did go out a little after dawn to take a couple of shots though.
That's my wheelbarrow that's kept full of water (rain not hose) and NO, I didn't use it for my coffee, it's for my cats and the local birds.
Cool Leo, Really Cool Now I'm sure you know this but on nights taht cold I used to put my camera and lens in the shed a few hours before dark and let it adjust, it did work very well.
Yes I usually leave my camera in the back room which is near enough to outside temperatures if I intend on using it but with the sleeping medication and lots of it, combined with Mersyndol I shouldn't have been up but I had a bad night and spent most of it awake. I did take time to look out the crapper window when I went in to have a smoke (only room in the house I smoke in and always with window open). It's a due east view and always piques my interest through my 4-6 usual wake up breaks through the nights.
On odd occasions I've ran out with the camera and gotten some stunning images over the years while I've been living here.
What is it with people who play with telescopes and the night sky?
As a life long insomniac I've spent many a night in the past just laying or sitting under the stars admiring the naked eye views when we had darker skies, part now due to LED street lights and no longer living surrounded by a 150-200 odd foot mountain in most directions at an old place I lived in (I lived directly at the base of it and it formed part of my back yard)..
Now I'm sure you know this but on nights taht cold I used to put my camera and lens in the shed a few hours before dark and let it adjust, it did work very well. 
