Cames
member
Reged: 08/04/08
Posts: 49
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Has anyone investigated whether individuals possessing one of the inherited forms of color blindness are helped or hindered in their ability to see faint astronomical objects? Especially challenging objects like the Horsehead Nebula for example.
I have heard reports that such people can defeat certain forms of camouflage much more readily than those with normal color vision.
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C
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Hrundi
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 02/06/08
Posts: 1249
Loc: Estonia
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I don't know if colorblindness means that there's an increased quantity of rods in color blind people, but on the upside, it shouldn't really hurt. Color is relatively unimportant in astronomy.
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brianb11213
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 02/25/09
Posts: 2121
Loc: 55.215N 6.554W
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Quote:
Color is relatively unimportant in astronomy.
But being insensitive to the difference between red and "white" light might be a benefit to an observer attempting to estimate the brightness of certain types of variable star which have a distinct red hue to people with "normal" colour vision.
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cold space
super member
Reged: 09/09/07
Posts: 117
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I am colorblind in a few colors, but although I can see camouflage very easily I don't think it makes any improvement or worse when deep sky viewing.
It just makes it harder for me to get my images adjusted right in programs like photoshop. 
Right to my eyes are different too most people. 
Matt.
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Tony Flanders
Post Laureate
Reged: 05/18/06
Posts: 3469
Loc: Cambridge, MA, USA
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Quote:
Has anyone investigated whether individuals possessing one of the inherited forms of color blindness are helped or hindered in their ability to see faint astronomical objects?
Interesting question. Former Sky & Telescope editors David Tytell and Josh Roth are both red-green colorblind. Dave claims that he's extra sensitive to faint objects because of his colorblindness. That would make sense on first principles, since colorblind people have more rods and fewer cones in their retinas.
Josh is perhaps the best urban deep-sky observer that I know -- definitely better than I am, and I'm no slouch. I don't know if his colorblindness helps, but it certainly doesn't hurt!
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Tony Flanders
First and foremost observing love: naked eye.
Second, binoculars.
Last but not least, telescopes.
And I sometimes dabble with cameras.
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scopethis
professor emeritus
Reged: 05/30/08
Posts: 638
Loc: Kingman, Ks
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I'm color blind to certain hues of green (per eye test). Eye Doc said men are prone to be color blind more than women. The interior decor and fashion/make-up industries use color blind employees for color tone (non-clashing) combinations.
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omahaastro
super member
Reged: 08/30/06
Posts: 166
Loc: Omaha, NE
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How interesting... I am red/green color blind as well... and consistently can see 'deeper' than anyone else I'm with.
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Jeff Huston
Obsession 18" f/4.5 (#264)
Meade 10" f/6.3
Atlas EQ-G
Cave 8" f/6 Newt
Orion 80 and 120mm f/5 achro
Coronado PST
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Spaced
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 03/01/05
Posts: 2186
Loc: Tacoma, Washington, USA
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No "investigation," but one data point: I have hiked for years with a colorblind friend. His visual acuity astounds me. He could see climbers on Mt. Rainier naked-eye from maybe six miles away, where I could barely pick them out with my binoculars.
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Mike
"The spiral light of Venus,
Rising first and shining best . . ."
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Webster 14.5" f/4.5 "Sugaree"
Megrez II 80 ED Triplet APO "Punk"
Siebert Black Night BVs
8 X 42 Celestron Regals
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Robin
journeyman
Reged: 09/14/08
Posts: 8
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Hi everyone,
this is a very interesting discussion! I have always thought that people, who suffer from color blindness, only lack one type of cone cells. So for example, if someone has a reduced amount of cone cells with a sensitivity maximum at red wavelength, cone cells with a sensitivity maximum at green wavelength would sense red color disproportionately well and thus such a person might sense red color as as being green.
So how could people with a color blindness detect fainter objects more easily? Do they have additional rod cells at those positions in their retina that should be occupied by cone cells?
So, is there really a physiologically explainable connection between color vision and sensitivity to dim light, or could it simply be a coincidence or a matter of deep-sky experience?
I've got a red/green color blindness, too, and I seem to be able to detect fainter objects relatively easily when focussing at a telescope, but it might just be a coincidence. (And I'm quite short-sightened, too.)
But the color blindness almost doesn't affect me at all in everyday life.
But I figured out that when estimating the brightness of red stars, I consistently unterestimate their brightness when using non-red comparison stars. As a consequence, I always try to make sure not to use K or M type comparison stars when estimating the brightness of comets.
Does anyone know of any studies or literature on that topic? I'd be interested in that stuff a lot.
Clear skies
Robin
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Cames
member
Reged: 08/04/08
Posts: 49
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Thank you all for your insightful reports. Although anecdotal at this point, it strikes me that the experiences you have related in this thread indicate a positive correlation. There is likely something to be discovered here and we could benefit from knowing more about this phenomenon. I would start off the investigations with a survey:
Hypothesis: People tend to pursue those activities at which they excel. Therefore, if colorblindness enhances the abilities of visual astronomers, then they are likely to derive greater satisfaction from their observational sessions and more likely to be hooked. Consequently, the frequency of the occurrence of colorblindness in visual deep sky observers should be higher than that in the population at large. Bias factors would have to be controlled but numbers and percentages should be relatively easy to compile.
The logic, if it holds, might make a nice project for a graduate student in ophthalmology.
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C
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