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Re: (meteorobs) The color of the night sky

  If there is truly an absence of light, save starlight, it would seem to me
that color perception would be negated almost entirely.
Any colors seen would have to originate from some light source, however
faint.    My experience as an artist has taught me to be quite perceptive of
colors and I've spent several nights while observing attempting to grasp what
color the broad, dark stellar background might be, in order to paint meteor
scenes.  To be honest, gray was the only "color" I could perceive, save for
slight hints of blue in the Milky Way.  During the experimental phase of
painting my night-sky scenes, I found that the darkest shade of blue, mixed
with just a slight amount of "hot" orange (a complimentary color) to be most
satisfying.  Of course, the orange had the effect of graying down the blue,
which matched my own perceptions rather nicely.


Lew Gramer wrote:

> Robert, I think you are correct about afterimage complementarity and the
> (apparent) color of the night sky. However, I have also observed meteors
> from a very dark site WITHOUT a red flashlight, e.g., Lyrid peak in 1998
> from Long Key FL, when I used a tape recorder and WWV signal all night.
> (Thus, I had no need to ever look at charts, watch, or a recording form!)
>
> Under such circumstances, I can verify that the night sky seemed to me to
> have (away from the Zodiacal Band, Gegenschein, Zodiacal Light, Milky Way,
> etc.) a distinctive deep, dark blue-green tint. This is certainly more in-
> dicative of my eyes than anything else: if I WERE in fact picking up actual
> airglow, the chance that I accurately perceived its color is next to nil.
>
> I'd love to hear who else has observed under such lightless circumstances,
> which is after all extremely rare among us red-light-happy astronomers. ;>
>
> Clear skies,
> Lew Gramer
>
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