Originally Posted by tvdavis

The colors are "real" in that they are created through RGB filters (in the case of my type of camera). They represent the wavelength of light captured by the camera. They are just as "real" as the colors you see in an image you take of your landscape with your camera. The main difference is that when we look at an object in sunlight we are seeing the reflected colors in G2V light because our sun is a G2V star. To get appropriate color in astroimages we have to calibrate them to a G2V star. If not then the colors are "off".

Tom