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I am developing an astronomy software and need to know the color of each planet in the Solar System, when observed with the naked eye. I cannot find that information after googling for a while. Is there any good source? a RBG color associated to each planet would be ideal but it can be any other color system.

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  • $\begingroup$ Google search provided this, more basic: curious.astro.cornell.edu/about-us/58-our-solar-system/… and more advanced, though this is from 2008, there might be updates out there: astronomycameras.com/data/editorials/20080320/assets/… $\endgroup$
    – userLTK
    Commented Mar 6, 2016 at 1:20
  • $\begingroup$ Yes, I have seen that one from Cornell. It has a vague description of colors. The other one doesn't contain usable info for my purposes. $\endgroup$
    – Jaime
    Commented Mar 6, 2016 at 2:32
  • $\begingroup$ colour when viewed from Earth, or when viewed close up under similar ilumination? $\endgroup$
    – SE - stop firing the good guys
    Commented Mar 6, 2016 at 7:31
  • $\begingroup$ @Hohmannfan, any of them would help. I guess the second one is easier to determine. $\endgroup$
    – Jaime
    Commented Mar 6, 2016 at 8:03
  • $\begingroup$ What colour would you describe the moon as? Silvery white, or dark grey? What exactly are your "purposes"? $\endgroup$
    – James K
    Commented Mar 6, 2016 at 9:23

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Here are some values found by taking the hue from images, and adjusting the brightness to fit the albedo:

Mercury #1a1a1a Yes it is really that dark

Venus #e6e6e6 or perhaps a bit darker

Earth tricky as it is a mix of colors, and changes over the year seems to average out as about #2f6a69

Mars #993d00

Jupiter #b07f35

Saturn #b08f36

Uranus #5580aa

Neptune #366896

You might find these surprisingly dark. Planets look like bright dots against the dark sky

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    $\begingroup$ "pale #2f6a69 dot" $\endgroup$
    – SE - stop firing the good guys
    Commented Mar 6, 2016 at 15:39
  • $\begingroup$ Hi James, that's exactly what I was looking for. I may apply some luminosity algorithm on the top of that, but that's a good starting point. $\endgroup$
    – Jaime
    Commented Mar 6, 2016 at 18:54
  • $\begingroup$ @SE-stopfiringthegoodguys love it! $\endgroup$
    – uhoh
    Commented May 22, 2021 at 1:47
  • $\begingroup$ TIL you can just set the size of the image to 1 px to average every pixel into one. $\endgroup$
    – WarpPrime
    Commented May 27, 2021 at 14:01

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