There’s something deflating about the first time you spot a nebula through a telescope. You’re standing outside in the dark and the cold, squinting and fiddling with knobs, trying to chase down some tiny patch of sky through a tiny circle of glass – until suddenly an unthinkably vast cosmic structure comes into view from across the interstellar void. It’s stunning, even humbling. Yet you can’t help thinking: “Where are all the colours?”
For decades now we’ve been treated to ph...