Hi Guys, We W.A.A.C.ers are what I like to call *privileged*, in that one of our members has a 17 1/2 " truss tube Dob. The views we get are breathtaking.(He's lucky if he gets to look thru it some nights as we usually take it over). M42, to my eyes, glows fluro green, with just a touch of pink. (weather permitting of course).
Jimmy, what Rob has said is right. The main reason that you can't see colour, is because your eyes/brain process the info. instantly.(not like film which accumulates the light). savvy? Unless, as has been said, you have a BIG t'scope.
(cones = colour----rods = movement/B&W).
As for the Horse head, well it's definitely there, if you use *averted imagination*.
The filters for Planetary Nebula/DSO etc, start with a Broadband, for light polluted areas, a UHC and then an OIII. These give you an ever decreasing range of filtering light,right down to an 11 nanometer range with the OIII.
Best advice is BORROW the one's you're interested in if possible.
HTH,
