  We explore the feasibility of using current generation, off-the-shelf, indium
gallium arsenide (InGaAs) near-infrared (NIR) detectors for astronomical
observations. Light-weight InGaAs cameras, developed for the night vision
industry and operated at or near room temperature, enable cost-effective new
paths for observing the NIR sky, particularly when paired with small
telescopes. We have tested an InGaAs camera in the laboratory and on the sky
using 12 and 18-inch telescopes. The camera is a small-format, 320x240 pixels
of 40$\mu$m pitch, Short Wave Infra-Red (SWIR) device from Sensors Unlimited.
Although the device exhibits a room-temperature dark current of $5.7 \times
10^4$ $e^-s^{-1}$ per pixel, we find observations of bright sources and
low-positional-resolution observations of faint sources remain feasible. We can
record unsaturated images of bright ($J=3.9$) sources due to the large pixel
well-depth and resulting high dynamic range. When mounted on an 18-inch
telescope, the sensor is capable of achieving milli-magnitude precision for
sources brighter than $J=8$. Faint sources can be sky-background-limited with
modest thermoelectric cooling. We can detect faint sources ($J=16.4$ at
$10\sigma$) in a one-minute exposure when mounted to an 18-inch telescope. From
laboratory testing, we characterize the noise properties, sensitivity, and
stability of the camera in a variety of different operational modes and at
different operating temperatures. Through sky testing, we show that the
(unfiltered) camera can enable precise and accurate photometry, operating like
a filtered $J$-band detector, with small color corrections. In the course of
our sky testing, we successfully measured sub-percent flux variations in an
exoplanet transit. We have demonstrated an ability to detect transient sources
in dense fields using image subtraction of existing reference catalogs.
