Can I See Color Through My Telescope

If you look at the advertisments and packaging for astronomical telescopes they almost always show gorgeous, vivid color pictures of nebulae and planets, etc. But can you really see color at the eyepiece. Another yes and no answer.

You will not see the brilliant colors or detail visible in those pictures. These were shot with sensitive film or specialized digital detectors (CCD cameras) which collected photons for minutes or hours. Your eye can not do that. What you do see through the eyepiece is subtle, yet beautiful in its own right.

Another reason for the lack of color is when your eyes have 2 sensors, rods and cones. The cones are responsible for color reception, the cones do great with even dim light. When your eyes are dark adapted, the rods dominate and color detection goes down.

On M42 for instance (the Orion Nebula) at a dark sight I usually see it as a pastel grey/green with almost any scope. However with bigger apertures (14 inches and up), I do detect a bit of peachy pink, kind of a rose tint, and a touch of blue but it is subtle. I have also detected some color in the brighter planetary nebulae. Definite color can be seen in some stars, especially double stars with different colors which gives a nice comparison.

Also color is nicely evident on the planets, but they again are more pastel than vivid like you see in pictures. Details in any view have to be teased out while you observe, the longer you look, the more you see. Another trick is to use averted vision when viewing deep space objects. By this I mean you look at the object but don't look right at it (off to the side of your vision kind of. Try it at the eyepiece.

Clear Skies