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That's an amateur photo? By the way, my Dad got one of those fancy Mead telescopes and we haven't been able to see more than the moon. We're very frustrated star watchers. Anyhow, those are spectacular photos. It's amazing how much amazing beauty exists so far beyond our vision.

With amateur telescopes (and even larger ones) it is very hard to see any color. The only way to see color in astronomical objects is to attach a camera to your telescope. Then you take a picture where the shutter on the camera lens stays open for a long time in order to capture the color.

If you just are looking at sky objects through a good quality telescope without a camera, you will only see black and white colors.

This is really the dirty little secret of astronomy and buying a telescope. No color to be seen unless you take a picture and develop it.

As for your Dad, if he got a good Meade telescope, he will see many cool things. Start with the planets. Buy an astronomy magazine at your newstand to find out where the planets are in the sky at the present time. Astronomy magazine and Sky and telescope magazine are the two biggest. Maybe you can just go to their web site to find the planet locations. Then after the planets, go to galaxies, globular star clusters, nebula's, etc.