Am I seeing what I should be seeing??

[philjamesw]

I am very new to this and was wondering if anyone could give me some guidance. My wife bought me a Skywatcher 127 AZT GOTO for Christmas (generous wife!!). I have been using the bundled 10mm and 25mm EP and the 2x Barlow and really enjoyed looing at Juipter and the Orion Nebula.

However, while there are plenty of images available on the web which show lots of colours I have not got anyone to ask to confirm whether the blue fuzzy cloud that I can see is what I should be seeing with the naked eye.

Are all the impresive pictures that you see on the internet the result of IR light, or am I missing something?

Going to try to have a look at the some other deep-sky objects tonight weather permitting! Anyone got any recomendations as to what to try for and what it should look for should I be successful!!

[Nova]

cameras work differently to our eyes unfortunatly. fuzzy clouds are what you should be seeing. using the averted vision technique will improve the view Averted vision - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia and having a good dark sky. With larger apertures detail can start to be made out

[Kai]

If afraid to say but for 99.9% of Deep Space objects you will see no colour apart from grey. On very large diameter scopes people do report seeing some colour on objects though

You will see colour on Planets though

Ps you may be able to see a greenish hue in the Orion Nebula ( i have done)

[StevieDvd]

You won't see any colour when viewing with the naked eye. The pretty images are all done using cameras which build up the picture with exposures of several minutes (and by combining several images).

With the Orion Nebula you'll see a slightly smokey/foggy wispiness, and like fog not in colour.

Seems like you've made a good start then.

[E621Keith]

Our eyes have two types of receptor cells. Cone cells sees colour, but they are not very sensitive. Rod cells are very sensitive, but they see in B&W.

DSO are very dim and their are only bright enough to activates the more sensitive rod cells, which is why you don't see any colour. I've look through a 24" dob and didn't see any colour, although the owner said he can see some Ha regions in red. I guess the ability to see colour in the dark varies among individuals. However, if it is marginal on a 24", I doubt anyone can see any colour in DSO with scopes of more common aperture.

Camera sensors are sensitive across a larger spectrum. They also used colour filters (either external or in a Bayer pattern over pixels) to allow them to produce coloured image.

[Zul]

You wont see colors as others sayed before, you need to take pictures to see colors.

[philjamesw]

Cheers everyone; nice to know that I am not doing anything wrong (apart from neglecting my better half when spending hours using the scope she bought me!!!!). Great to be able to get useful guidance from you all with such quick responses.

[swamp thing]

Well I'm gonna go against the grain here.

Seeing colour is not the norm in DSO,s but the Orion nebula is different.

I see colour in it very easily indeed. In fact last week through my 10" I noted blue colour, this was confirmed by my observing buddy. Conditions weren't even that good with a waxing moon over half illuminated from a site with a VLM of about 5.5 at best.

Admittedly through my observing buddies 4" frac no colour could be seen by either of us.

I have never failed to see colour through my 16", sometimes it's very evident, showing salmon pinks, some purples, turquoise, and green tinges.

It's not as prominent as an image but it is deffinitily there.

Regards Steve

[Tinker1947]

I managed some colour in the M42 (Orion Neb) this was looking through the camera view in prime focus, took 10 subs and there nicely colored reddish tinge..