[Pred the Penguin]

This could on forever...

[Aardwolf]

Apart from the ambient light reflected from the earth and moon, and the closeness to Sol.

Ambient light? No such thing. There's no clouds of gas or dust around earth (at the distances astronauts have gotten) that would significantly diffuse the light reflecting off of earth or the moon or the light from the sun. If you look in the direction of the black of space, you see the black of space. If you look in the direction of earth, the moon, or the sun, obviously you see light from earth, the moon, or the sun. But there's no haze, no diffusion, and no "ambient light". And I'm fairly certain that whatever TINY difference in the amount of matter there is out there versus farther out isn't enough that it would have any visible effect.

[jdjtcagle]

Well, it won't be realistic unless the stars are in the right place.

It can still be closer to realistic than colorful nebulae, ie, have the illusion of realism.  Honestly if one was to leave the milky way and erase visible constellations, Id say mission accomplished.

[redsniper]

Or we can go in the complete opposite direction and have ridiculously vibrant backgrounds, Homeworld-style.

[SpardaSon21]

Or we can go in the complete opposite direction and have ridiculously vibrant backgrounds, Homeworld-style.

Just don't make them HW2 style.  Those are atrocious.

[Droid803]

HW2 backgrounds look like you're in the high atmosphere of some gas giant more than deep space.

[S-99]

During the coldest months in alaska is also a time when the skies are very clear and cloudless. I look up at the night sky every winter and it's so clear, you can see a crap load more stars with the naked eye. And i could see green nebula. The mystery remains of whether i was seeing nebula, or just the billions of hydrogen or helium molecules floating through space from so far away that the ambient star light makes them visible.

[General Battuta]

That's called an aurora, mate.

[Klaustrophobia]

any nebula visible to the naked eye is likely going to be red. 

[Wolfy]

During the coldest months in alaska is also a time when the skies are very clear and cloudless. I look up at the night sky every winter and it's so clear, you can see a crap load more stars with the naked eye. And i could see green nebula. The mystery remains of whether i was seeing nebula, or just the billions of hydrogen or helium molecules floating through space from so far away that the ambient star light makes them visible.

Did they look anything a bit like any of these?
http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&source=hp&q=aurora+borealis&gbv=2&aq=0&aqi=g10&oq=aur&gs_rfai=&start=0

If the answer to that was yes, then that green stuff you saw was solar radiation having fun with the Earth.

[Herra Tohtori]

Actually, charged particles of the solar wind being funnelled to polar regions by the Earth's magnetic field and colliding with atmosphere, ionizing the molecules and causing the awesome looking glow.

Auroras are a wonderful phenomenon. I have once happened upon a proper corona style aurora, which is basically when the whole sky is lit with them, and forming seemingly infinitely high pillars on the sky:




Nebulas would, in all likelihood, mostly look like somewhat lighter background to the starfield. In some cases, however, the light of the nebula could actually cover the starfield, making it difficult to use stars for navigation.

That would likely be the case in somewhere like the Trifid nebula or other places where stars are born and are heating the gas in the nebula. Or someplace like Eta Carinae, where the gigantic star in the middle is illuminating the planetary nebula it has puffed around itself. Colours, though? Not as bright as the Hubble pictures I'm afraid.

In fact, open and elliptical star clusers like Pleiades, Hyades or Messier 13 might provide fairly fascinating views.

Then there's stuff like Charcoal nebula - being close to it, it would obscure the sky behind it.

Also, the view of Milky Way as seen from Magellanic clouds would likely be breathtaking.

[Snail]

Also, the view of Milky Way as seen from Magellanic clouds would likely be breathtaking.

This.

[Mongoose]

Can I bum a ride out there with someone?

[NGTM-1R]

Aye, the sky doesn't look like that to human eyes.

Sure it does, if you're in a place that's dark enough. I recognize the technique for the foreground too, wave a flashlight around to highlight it.

[General Battuta]

Aye, the sky doesn't look like that to human eyes.

Sure it does, if you're in a place that's dark enough. I recognize the technique for the foreground too, wave a flashlight around to highlight it.

Where's dark enough? I've seen very impressive skies where I grew up, which was remote and rural and far from any light pollution, but I don't believe that anywhere on Earth will exhibit patterns that stark to the human eye. Even in pre-industrial eras I don't believe it would have been so vivid.

[NGTM-1R]

Rural Mississippi has similar skies to that.

[General Battuta]

I imagine the light levels are comparable to rural Vermont, and I think it's safe to say that while you get a great many more stars, you will never get a sky that looks like that.

[Charismatic]

I want new eyes to see other main colors besides the Red-Blue spectrum.

[Wobble73]

I want new eyes to see other main colors besides the Red-Blue spectrum.

Like Geordie's visor in Star Trek TNG. 

[S-99]

That's called an aurora, mate.

I know what an aurora is. I see them all the time, their boring, mostly green (sometimes other colors), and uninspiring. When i meant clear sky, i meant a clear sky and seeing something that was much beyond the atmosphere.