Can we see the color of nebulae? Someone asked me this question:


  To see the color of the Great Nebula in Orion, how large the aperture of the telescope should be.


I don’t even know whether this is possible. I understand that the colorful patterns of the nebulae are from the cameras. Besides, my own experience shows that when I target the telescope at them, I see nothing but some white blur.

So is this possible when we watch the deep sky objects with a really huge telescope, under the finest conditions?
Very large (for amateur) scopes in very dark places, with healthy eyes on a good night have credibly reported seeing color in nebula. The Orion is about as good as it gets,
lots of photons, my eyes are not particularly good, but have been out with others who claim noticing color in the Trapezium in a thirty-ish inch reflector