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When I was young, I could see color in the nebula through the scope. Now, I am an old guy, I can still see the wisps and some of the stars buried in the center of that big loop, but, can’t see the colors anymore. :(

(It’s very hard to see the color of low light items like the Orion nebula, mainly because the light isn’t bright enough to activate the color sensors in our eyes. When it is very clear, the nebula is bright enough to activate those sensors!)

Someone upstream asked about the Horsehead. The Horsehead needs a scope big enough to allow you to see the contrast between the dark cloud and the brighter sky behind the cloud. I saw it earlier this year in a friends 22inch Dob. One of the most surprising things about the Horsehead is that it is huge! You may have been seeing it, but, if you didn’t have low power in, you were only seeing a small slice of it.