You've done it again, Reggie! You've captured the same colors in M42 as I can see with my eyes. And how you're the only one to ever have done this trick with a camera - and only you - I have no clue whatsoever!

But I'll defer to the old adage - "Never look a 'Gift Horse' in the mouth."

Keep up the great works!

R & D - back to sticking pins in my dolls...

 

Nice shots Reggie. I can see a green hue in M42 after around 20 seconds or so of continuous visual observing. I think as our eyes dark adapt it allows the colour to appear. I'm not sure what the process is though as according to my understanding you should perceive less colour.

 

I think it's easiest to see any colour in it when you are observing with an exit pupil over 3mm.

 

I'm not sure how it works, I assumed as you did that colour perception and separation lessens as the rods come more into action. I've even seen the greenish hue with a 2mm exit pupil on a 90mm Mak. I wondered if it was an optical illusion but many people have reported the same thing.

 

Also:

'Observers have long noted a distinctive greenish tint to the nebula, in addition to regions of red and of blue-violet. The red hue is a result of the Hα recombination line radiation at a wavelength of 656.3 nm. The blue-violet coloration is the reflected radiation from the massive O-class stars at the core of the nebula.

The green hue was a puzzle for astronomers in the early part of the 20th century because none of the known spectral lines at that time could explain it. There was some speculation that the lines were caused by a new element, and the name nebulium was coined for this mysterious material. With better understanding of atomic physics, however, it was later determined that the green spectrum was caused by a low-probability electron transition in doubly ionized oxygen, a so-called "forbidden transition". This radiation was all but impossible to reproduce in the laboratory at the time, because it depended on the quiescent and nearly collision-free environment found in the high vacuum of deep space.' ~ Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_Nebula

 

From what I can gather nebulium is a bit like kryptonite on steroids with a hint of unobtainium. lol

 

http://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/unobtainium

 

I can see this nebula as green visually but I never spotted any red or any other colors. But the green is solid color. Always a pleasure to look at it.

That color is visible at any exit pupil.. 7mm or 1.5mm but I never noticed what is the very best exit pupil to catch the green color. Again @Mak the Night I need to test 3mm

@Orion25 thanks for sharing your great pictures of this very intriguing object very nice. (;

 

@Mak the Night, I see especially on SGL some people say that 5mm is a very good exit pupil for DSOs.

 

Yes, especially for quite faint ones. It's always a balance between exit pupil, magnification and conditions though. My new ST102 should give me a 5mm exit pupil for 20x with a 25mm eyepiece. For 2" observing my main range will be between a 36mm Baader Aspheric and a 19mm Celestron Luminos.

 

M42 is often said to be one of the very few that we can and do see colours in. All others being presented as grey blobs (to put it clinically and non-artistically ).

I base my colours in M42 from my first 'look & stare-with-jaw-dropped' view as a 12 year old in the Winter of 1972 - through my achromatic 3" F15 Edscorp refractor, with both a 25mm & 12.5mm Ramsden EP. Very basic stuff, in other words.

I haven't seen a Ramsden in many years & decades! These were the standard EP-designs that came with "real" telescopes for beginners and intermediate observers & telescope junkies. The cheapie junk 'toy' telescopes (in my opine) had Huygenian EP's. Now often called 'MA' eyepieces. They're still crawling about. If anyone knows of a source of Ramsden, please let me know. I'd love to see what they'd do in more advanced instruments.

Now where'd I leave my Doll & Needles....?

 

I always thought Harry Ramsden's was a chippy.



How come you can't buy cod at Harry Ramsden's? Plaice, halibut and roe, but no cod.



Sky-Watcher call these Modified Achromats, I think they're a form of reversed Kellner.

 

Who knows about these MA's? They Could be Kellner, or Huygens. Likely Both!

How's the view through those "MA" one's from SkyWatcher?

 

The 25mm isn't too bad and has a wide angle feel like reversed Kellners do. The 10mm is a bit dodgy.