Quote: Experienced observers do know about the little tricks the eye can play
Sure? I think that most of the illusions I posted were unknown.
Yup, I'm sure. My favorite one is the so-called "green" dark albedo markings on Mars, which are actually a lot closer to a neutral gray color if observed in isolation. I recall creating a "fake" Mars using only the salmon color of the light regions and two tones of intermixed gray color for the albedo markings. I showed to one professional astronomer and even he got fooled, as he though the dark areas were bluish or bluish-green. These color illusions are fairly common, but do not necessarily explain the observations of those who report faint red or pinkish colorations in M42 (nor should they have to, as it is quite possible that red from H-alpha is being seen).
Quote: Quote: First, a person must have the sensitivity to the various colors in the first place. A color blind person will never see much in the way of color in nebulae regardless of the aperture, and more than a few people have very little color sensitivity at the low light levels found in astronomical objects.
Without numbers this sentence is so vague that might be either true or false.
It is true:
^ Neitz, Jay & Jacobs, Gerald H. (1986). "Polymorphism of the long-wavelength cone in normal human colour vision." Nature. 323, 623-625.
As for numbers, it won't take a long search of available literature to bring up some study, but suffice it to say that there is some variation in the color sensitivity of different people. In any case, there is enough evidence to consider the reports of sightings of color in bright emission nebulae (even red) to be possible.
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Re: Is it possible to see the nebula with colour?
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