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Brendon,
'I will never forget seeing colour in M42 from the South West one time. This was real because even though I was in my late 20’s, it was still before I had learnt much about what I was looking at, so I didn’t have much to influence what I was seeing. I didn’t realize until some years later people say it doesn’t happen.'
On 12th December 1995, I took delivery of my first 12" reflector. I'd never owned a telescope that large before. My previous scope was one of those camera-shop 4.5" reflectors. First light was M42. Here's an extract from my journal of that night:
'M42 was looked at again and I was amazed to see colour clearly visible. The Huygenian region was green and the streamers north and south from it were very distinctly red.'
At this time, I firmly believed that colour was not visible in deep-sky objects, except blue and green planetary nebulae. Red was a definite no-no.
I still see green and red in M42 whenever I look at it with my current 12" reflector. Colour vision is a very subjective thing. Just because many people can't see colours in M42 doesn't mean that you or I *can't*.
I very rarely see colours in DSOs, but M42 is a stand-out exception for me.
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