will you ever see colour while observing? noob

[leenewtoastro]

as title

[Moonshane]

hi Lee

do you mean in galaxies, nebulae etc?

if so then unfortunately not, most objects will be a grey fuzz with more or less detail.

but it's the fact you can see something millions of light years away that gives me a buzz, as well as the thrill of the chase and satisfaction of location etc.

you can see lots of colour in stars of course as well as planets.

[omneferuss]

the cheapshot answer is : "sure ya will.. if you use a short F/ratio achro! ..just aim it at any really bright target, like the full moon fer instance"

[Kai]

On good nights i can make out a green tinge to M42 but thats about it im afraid.

[blinky]

As with Kai, I can sometimes see the Orion Neb as slightly green - the only other thing with colour would be the blue snowball planetry nebula.

[stolenfeather]

Like Kai, I have only seen colour in M42 and do see the bands in Jupiter in different hues. Like Moonshine says though, " it's the fact you can see something millions of light years away" that gives me a thrill!

Isabelle

[KevG]

Try 'Mu Cephei' (Constellation Cepheus), a very vivid red star hence it is also known as the Garnet star, well worth a look as the colour is striking, plus it is a fascinating object to read up on, makes the observation all the more interesting, it's one of my favourite targets.

[stolenfeather]

Interesting Kev, I'll give it "a look" myself!

Isabelle

[Nexus 6]

Good comments already given here, I also has seen green hue's when observing M42 and have also seen the Blue Snowball, very nice.

Mu Cephei is indeed striking but also try Hinds Crimson star in Lepus a much deeper red and well worth a look

[UTMonkey]

Sorry to hijack a thread, but where does the colour come from when I see the fabulous pictures posted on this site, is it some kind of filtering?

[LukeSkywatcher]

Sorry to hijack a thread, but where does the colour come from when I see the fabulous pictures posted on this site, is it some kind of filtering?

Yes. Hours spent on a computer using imaging software to add different layers of colour.

Planets show colour. Some stars also.

[nicnac]

i get a tad of colour with my set up on M42

i get the colours from some stars too - reds, orange and blue

good colour from Mars a while back and a few bands from Jupiter,.

but, as said, most things are faint and monochrome

[Doc]

Through a 16" M42 has lots of green and you can see blue and green in quite a few planetary nebulas.

[spaceboy]

I must be doing something wrong as I can't make out any colour in M42. The blue snowball is blue, M57 is a tad green, Albireo double is blue and orange, Betelgeuse is orange, mars has a reddish hue, Saturn is straw but nothing in M42. Is it all of M42 or a certain part ? I know most colour is opaque but I usually make out something.

SPACEBOY

[Nexus 6]

I must be doing something wrong as I can't make out any colour in M42. The blue snowball is blue, M57 is a tad green, Albireo double is blue and orange, Betelgeuse is orange, mars has a reddish hue, Saturn is straw but nothing in M42. Is it all of M42 or a certain part ? I know most colour is opaque but I usually make out something.

SPACEBOY

spaceboy, M42 is without doubt the best nebula I have observed, its greenish hue stretches away around the upper middle and away to the left of the fov or at least it appeared that way to me. Very surprising that you have seen objects like the blue snowball which is tiny in comparison to the great orion nebula

[spaceboy]

Who knows ???? Someone also mentioned they can see colour in Jupiter and thats another mono for me I will have to see next time if I ever get a chance. If it's not cloudy the moons washing out everything

[RobH]

Sorry to hijack a thread, but where does the colour come from when I see the fabulous pictures posted on this site, is it some kind of filtering?

The human eye is not colour sensitive in low light levels. The colour in the images you see is there, but it is captured using long exposures on highly sensitive cameras. If your eyes were that sensitive, a lot of the time you would see the colour that's in the images.

Some images though, for example many of the Hubble telescope ones, are done in false colour, where a particular colour is assigned to a specific filter in the order of wavelength.

The so called 'Hubble Pallette', uses red for light from the ionisation of sulphur ions (SII), green fro Hydrogen alpha (Ha), and blue from Oxygen 3 (OIII).

If you actually look through these filters at a white light, SII is very deep red, Ha is also red but not as deep, and OIII is a blue/green.

I've never seen colour in any nebulae, even through a 20 inch scope, but that's probably more to do with my eyes than anything else

Cheers

Rob

[Hypernova]

I have only seen colour in a select few deep sky objects, all of them nebulae, a tint of blue in the aptly named Blue Snowball and slight blue hint in the Orion Nebula but that is about it apart from brightly coloured stars and planets.

[kniclander]

Who knows ???? Someone also mentioned they can see colour in Jupiter and thats another mono for me I will have to see next time if I ever get a chance. If it's not cloudy the moons washing out everything

I always saw jupiter in monochrome until I started binoviewing when it became quite obvious shades of beige. I have also noticed that one of my eyes is a lot more colour sensitive than the other - apparently that's quite common.

but as far as dso's go, m42, obviously green - everything else, shades of grey

[LukeSkywatcher]

WOW................

My eyesight is not as good as it should be but i have always taken it for granted that everyone sees planets such as Mars,Jupiter and Saturn in SOME kind of colour.

I see colour even with my 70mm refrac.

My 90mm refrac is just a joy to observe planets with. This has now been designated as my planetary scope. The 70mm is for imaging and my 130mm Dob is for DSO/Lunar observing.

Good God i have 3 individual setups.

Planetary,Imaging and DSO.

How and when the hell did this happen?

[Astro_Baby]

The only color I have observed in Deep Sky has been M57 which sometimes, under really good skies, shows a sort of dark green and M45 whe I have seen it glow a sort of deep blue a few times.

[Chris H]

Your eye has two types of light detecting cells, they are rods and cones. Cones are used in daytime and convert the image to the colours you see. Rods come into action when it's dark and your nightvision is activated they convert light into monochromatic values, everything in between black and white. Only when you see something bright at night will your cones come into play and 99.9% of DSO's are not bright.

[acey]

Planets (Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus) and certain stars can show colour, even in small instruments. Some nebulae can show green/blue in small scopes. To see red (e.g. in M42 or IC 418) you will probably need large aperture (16" or more) and a dark sky. Some people have reported seeing red in those objects with smaller aperture but they still needed a dark sky (limiting magnitude 6+), full dark adaptation, and plenty of practice.

The bottom line is that looking through a telescope is not like looking at a photograph. It's better.

[Chris H]

The bottom line is that looking through a telescope is not like looking at a photograph. It's better.

Couldn't agree more photos of planets and DSO's look great but you can just look them up on the internet (apologies to all imagers) IMO nothing beats finding a dim grey smudge and knowing what it is your looking at and how far away it is and that's why I'm 100% visual.

[pvaz]

I can see color easily in Mars (medium red with brown dark areas, one of them is very big and shaped like Africa, the polar caps are white), Saturn (2 very brown bands, a few (2 to 4) dark beige ones and a pink spot (GRS)) and Saturn (Some shades of beige on the rings and 2 gray faint weather bands contrasting with the beige disk, the poles are a lighter beige then the center). I find this easy to pick with decent seeing.

On DSOs I been able to see greenish tint on M42 and bluish on the blue snow ball. I need the best of nights to bring this out. More often then not they just look gray to me. That's with an 8" dob.