Galaxy Colors In A 10" Or Smaller scope?

[Mr Q]

Other than M31, has anyone out there observed any colors while observing galaxies in a 10" or smaller scope? The only one I have noticed any color in was M51 on a good seeing night. I thought I could detect a hint of blue-gray. Otherwise, all other galaxies I have observed appear as shades of white to gray. If you have observed any color, what galaxy was it and what size scope were you using? Mr Q

[RickJ]

Not even in a 30"

Rick

[Dave Mitsky]

Not even in a 30"

Rick

Ditto. The same goes for a 32" and 36".

Dave Mitsky

[Mr Q]

Must have been my imagination on that strange night many years ago, according to my log comments of the night/object concerning M51 ("A hint of blue-gray color?"). Haven't had the chance to observe with anything larger than a 16" so I figured (wrongly) that a larger aperture would produce some hint of color. Mr Q

[JustAFriend]

Some people have better color vision and better low-light vision that others.

I've never seen any colors.

[Kaptain K]

Some people have better color vision and better low-light vision that others.

I don't know about "better" color vision, but I know it differs from person to person. When I was in college, we were using a spectroscope and my roommate and I found that he could see lines deep in the violet that I could not! Conversely, I could see deeper into the far red than he could.

As far as low light vision, compared to him, I was virtually night blind! He once used the 5 inch guide scope to center a galaxy that I could barely see in the 12 inch main scope!

[Veeger]

In my 40 years in this hobby, I have never looked through a telescope larger than a 10" so I can't answer and perhaps in that regard I am still a newbie.

Maybe as JustAFriend has suggested, I have poor color vision at night because I can not recall seeing color in galaxies, globulars, planetaries and nebulae as well. Mainly shades of grey and the few times I have seen hints of yellow or red I have attributed it to abberation of some sort. (I see colors fine in the daylight however)

-Veeger

[Dave Mitsky]

A number of bright planetary nebulae (NGC 7662 - the Blue Snowball - is named quite literally) and a few emission nebulae, M42 and M8 for example, show some color, usually blue to green hues, through telescopes. As a matter of fact, I've seen a half dozen or more blue colored planetaries through my 101mm Tele Vue refractor.

Through very large apertures, some bright globular clusters can appear yellowish or slightly ruddy due to their populations of red giants.

The bright nuclear regions of some galaxies are yellowish in images due to the older giants that predominate there. Young blue stars occur in spiral arms and are most likely too few and too dim to activate color vision while looking through an eyepiece.

http://www.allaboutastro.com/M31.html

Scotopic and photopic vision appear to be two separate realms in terms of the perception of color. Having good night vision may not necessarily mean superior color perception and vice versa.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotopic_vision

Dave Mitsky

[Veeger]

Based on the wiki article you posted Dave, Scoptic vision is a function of the luminance level. It makes sense that bigger light buckets would make color perception more likely for some individuals.

-Veeger