Hi Ash,
As an aside to answer your original question, the reason you cant see any or much colour through your scope is because:
1) Its night time and dark.
2) Humans have two sets of light gathering objects (photoreceptors) in their eyes,
rods and
cones. This is due to survival requirements and evolution.
3) There are much more
rods in your eyes (about 120 million) than
cones (about 7 million) but the
rods are very sensitive to light in the dark, however do not have very much colour distinguishing characteristics.
4) The
rods are situated around the outside of the eye, (think of a donut, mmmmmm donuts arrrrrrr) whereas the
cones are very sensitive to colour and are situated more in the central part of the eye.
5) The
cones are responsible for detecting the colour we see during bright light (ie daylight) as the pupil contracts centrally and focuses this bright light toward the centre of the eye and because it is rich in colour during the day, the
cones are more numerous in that area.
6) At night, the eye's pupil dilates or stretches out centrally to try and gather as much light in to the eye as possible to allow us to see. As such, at night time, we need MANY more rod cells to detect the available light and make out details and ultimately detect threats such as predators using the outer part of the eyes and our peripheral vision.
7) You will have probably have noticed the
cones "switching" over to the
rods at night when you close your eyes and try to go to sleep. The colour waves and shapes you see behind your eyelids when you go to sleep are the
cones switching off and the
rods beginning to take over as your eyes become accustomed to the dark.
With these items in mind, while you are at the scope, its a very good idea to try and keep your eyes dark adapted by not looking at any bright "white" lights such as street lights and such as this will impair your night vision and cause your
rods and
cones to try and switch over. This is why it is recommended to use a red light to see at night as this is less disturbing to your night vision.
Also, when trying to make out some details at your scope, you will often be recommended to use "averted vision" which is when you do not look directly at a faint object but just off to the side of it. This will expose the light coming in your scope and through your eyepiece to the much more sensitive rod areas of your eyes and show you more details. It takes a bit of getting used to, but soon you will easily get the hang of it.
A bit of an essay to read
but I hope it answers some of your questions in a bit more detail.
Here endeth the lesson....
Chris
?
