What colour for M42

[ballaratdragons]

It has always amazed me that almost everyone I have ever asked about what colour they see M42 also has said 'Green', with a few saying just plain White.

Except one! Geoff (Starkler) maintains he can see it in pink!!

Last night I gave up on attempting to do Astropics as the seeing was too lousy so I thought I would peruse the sky optically for the 'easy to see in lousy weather' objects.

I looked at Good ol' 'Green' Orion Neb (M42) for about 10 - 15 minutes and was just about to move on when you could've knocked me over with a feather!!! I had noticed for the first time ever that I was seeing it in Pink with a light greenish/White centre (the Trap).

WOW Geoff, you are right, it can be seen Pink! And it looks even better than the Green image my eyes where used to. I especially liked the fact that I could see both colours, the pink of the main body with the greenish centre Trap area.

Outstanding. It is worth a try for everyone else. Just keep studying it for more than 10 minutes and it will come to you (patience).

After a quick look around (Mars, Plieades, 47Tuc etc) I went back to Orion Neb and because my eyes knew what to look for this time I seen the pink within about 1 minute.

[davidpretorius]

thanks for the heads up!

i have just star test, put the scope outside for a 3am date with saturn!

but will have a rip at the colour

[Robert_T]

Hi Ken - pretty amazing, I'd definitely be in the only ever seen it is faint green category, but then I'd never really looked for any pink either. S'pect it would depend a lot on how dark it is and how dark adapted your eyes are (and maybe on how old your eyes are :wink2: ). I guess there's no reason why some people might have more or more effective "Cones" (the colour seeing bits in the eye's retina) than usual or at least a higher number in relation to their more light sensitive B&W "Rods". After all it's a deficiency in one or more of the RGB "cone" receptors that cause colour blindness - perhaps some can be more colour sensitive than others.


cheers,

[slice of heaven]

Yep,plain white for me. The lad says it's pink but he's colour blind so it's probably green that he's seeing. He spends ages viewing M42,and never misses this one night after night through the summer.

The colour must add a nice touch

[ballaratdragons]

Robert, my eyes are getting old and I have only ever seen it in light green, but last night is the first time I have continually stared at it for so long (I usually only look at M42 for about 5 minutes). It takes training the eye what to look for I guess.

Reminds me of Dave47Tuc's talk at Camp!! Onya Dave.


Sure does Slick, give it a go! Just stare & stare & stare & stare :scared2:

[ballaratdragons]

Oh yeah, by the way, I was using a 30mm 2" EP. Nice wide field!

[astroron]

My Eyes are 63 years old this week and I have no trouble in seeing the green and pink in ORION, I also see the red outer circle and whitish inner portion of IC 418 a P/N in LEPUS, so I don't think it is age related, but more to do with observational skills and colour perception :eyepop: :astron:

[ballaratdragons]

Ooooo, I'll have to go check IC 418. Thanks Ron.

[astroron]

Ken this Planetary loves magnification and a reasonable size scope to see the colour, in my 16" under good skies it is a great little planetary Nebula with more detail seen the more often observed :) :cool: :astron:

[astroron]

Ken this is what IC418 looks like,but only to Hubble

[CosMos]

I have seen red in a number of the brighter deep sky objects, ranging from pale pink through to a deeper red. The larger mirrors show it well and especially one that is silvered. To test out whether what I was seeing was real, I once asked a member of the public what colour was the Orion Nebula. I was using a 22" at a public carpark by the Manukau Harbour in Auckland. The sky was pretty dark.

This guy hadn't looked through telescopes before and he never hesitated (without any prompting) to say that the outer edges were pink. Many of the other brighter DSOs like M17 for example can appear pink as well.

Rich :D :thumbsup: :cool: :cool:

[ving]

only ever seen a brilliant green. I am obviously going to have to spend some time on this. :)

congrats ken :)

[chunkylad]

Thanks for the headsup Ken!!!

If the skies ever clear around here, I'll try to squeeze some colour from M42. I managed a peek at it last night, before the cloud rolled in, that is!

Cheers
Dave

[ballaratdragons]

Ron, Is that the one they call 'Spirograph'?

[astroron]

Sure is Ken, go into the Hubble Heritage site for the original pic. Ron

[venus]

seeing is definately in the eyes of the beholder, here's an illusion that's been around for a while........