Nebula Pictures - True colors? Nope...

[ParanoiA]

Ok, so I guess I'm stupid because I had always thought those beautiful, awesome pictures of nebulas and such were actual colors. Now I'm learning that much of this color is added to distinguish the various ingredients - like hydrogen and sulfur.

 

So, now I'm wondering, what do these things really look like to us? If I'm traveling in the starship enterprise and happen upon the Eagle Nebula, what would it look like to me?

[insane_alien]

got a telescope?

 

well, while a lot of the pictures are intended for a scientific purpose, some of the imges are close to true colour. they are not actually true colour because the sensors will pick up stuff a bit outside the visible spectrum and have to be put through an image processor to make a picture.

 

technically any digital picture is not true colour.

[ParanoiA]

No, I don't have a telescope. Although I live next to the Powell observatory which has an impressive arsenol of scopes. I have been there once, and it was a really cool experience.

 

http://www.askconline.org/powell.htm

 

Anyway, it's nice to know some of these images are close to true color. I was afraid some of this stuff might be downright boring to look at when observable by the naked eye. Of course, that would be fascinating in itself...

[insane_alien]

well, they won't appear as bright most of them. some of the exposures are taken over days so its bright enough.