When I look at the Northern Lights with the naked eye, I see grey or white with some tints of green. Now when looking at photos of the northern lights I see brilliant greens and purples that seem to the the prevailing colors. I mentioned this to a co worker who said that the picture on the screen of a web site of northern lights was what he saw when he looked at the northern lights. My question is why don't I see those colors when I look at them, do I have some sort of color blindness? As far as I know I don't have any form of color blindness.What do you think. And by the way, what do you see when you look at them. And FYI, I live in northern Minnesota, so the lights here are bright and often!
2007-10-09 15:08:32 · 8 answers · asked by gus_zalenski 5 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
In addition to the other good answers here, the human eye has two different "modes" of seeing, one for day (photopic) and one for night (scotopic). The night mode works almost entirely in the rods of the retina, which are sensitive to brightness but not to color.
I have exactly the same experience that you do when viewing northern lights: pale and usually colorless, only occasionally seeing a hint of blue. And I see the same way with star color, too. On the other hand, I can see as many as 11 Plieades on a good night, which is more than average. I have concluded that my eyes are rich in rods and poor in cones compared to average, which is a mixed blessing ... but on the whole, a plus for naked eye astronomy.
2007-10-09 17:54:19 · answer #1 · answered by Keith P 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Thats because a camera is more sensitive to certain colors than the human eye can be.
I saw an aurora as all green once but the camera shot showed reds and purples too.
It's perfectly normal
2007-10-09 15:15:28 · answer #2 · answered by B. 7 · 4⤊ 0⤋
The human eye is much more sensitive to green light than it is to red, while most digital cameras are very sensitive to red. The same thing happens with nebulae - the camera sees lots of red, but the human eye, if it sees any color at all, sees the green.
2007-10-09 15:32:49 · answer #3 · answered by injanier 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋
I think it's differences in colour sensitivity between the human eye and film or CCD. Most of the auroras I see are grey or green; occasionally they will be red or pink. I don't think I've ever seen purple in an aurora.
2007-10-09 16:55:43 · answer #4 · answered by GeoffG 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Fabulous pics Jiggly. Nothing here just heavy grey clouds.
2016-05-20 03:01:25 · answer #5 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
This is an interesting question, and one that confused me for many years.
2016-08-26 02:19:47 · answer #6 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It is a reality, with the help from the Sun
2007-10-09 15:43:56 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 2⤋
Sound arguments here.
2016-09-19 20:25:06 · answer #8 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋