On Sun, 15 Aug 2010 01:15:33 -0500, Rick Johnson
wrote:

On 8/14/2010 9:12 PM, William Hamblen wrote:
On Sat, 14 Aug 2010 12:50:44 +0200, "Stefan
wrote:

Nice image Robert.
I always wonder what the "real" colour for Halpha nebulae is, I am getting
quite a lot of variation in my images...

Stefan

Color being a perception, the closest thing to a "real" color probably
is what you see through the eyepiece.

Dalin Malin has made beautiful images:

http://www.aao.gov.au/images/general/emission.html

Something to shoot for.

Bud

That would be a black and white image as the eye rarely sees color
through a telescope, even a very large one. The light is just too dim.
Even when it does it is so weak it would be barely visible.

Certainly that isn't what is being done with the images at the site you
link to. If it were the Orion Nebula would be mostly a very weak teal
color with some faintly blue highlights and a couple very small areas of
weak pink to the east of the Trapezium.

Yes the pictures at the link are pretty and colorful but certainly not
even close to what the eye would see.

Rick

I have to agree with Rick - During the years doing visual work the
only colors I've observed through an eyepiece is gray and lite green
(on really bright nebula). I've had people tell me they could see the
reds and they probably did - my eyes just couldn't do it.

I've also read that if you were able to travel to the nebula, you
wouldn't know you were in a nebula, i.e., the dust/gass is too
dispersed to be visible. I would be up for the trip if it could be
done (8).