There are some interesting comments on seeing colours in this thread:-
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...ad.php?t=26916
It's worth noting from the Chris' excellent rods/cones discussion that using averted vision is not the way to see colour.
A good practice for training your brain to see colour is DY Crucis near Mimosa in the Southern Cross. Look for threads on it - and a recent photo on this forum from Peter Ward. After a while, it gets easier to pick out the red star in the presence of a bright star. You wonder why you never saw it before it becomes so distinctive.
Q. Given Saturn is clearly cream coloured to the naked eye (well it is to mine), surely it should clearly show colour with magnification? Edit: I guess I'm asking - does magnification increase or decrease colour perception? Not quite the same issue, but I know of the trick to defocus stars to more clearly see what colour they are.