With respect to astrophotography, nigh all the time, those brilliant colours are only achieved via post processing, combination and enhancement/stretching of the sensor data for each colour channel. Let's say he didn't take as long or many of an "exposure" to build as bright an image. With the naked eye, one could at most expect to notice the galactic core and in especially dark conditions, a bit of nebulosity.
the arms are super dim considering the young/hot stars should live there but i like the gas detail
Man, that's beautiful.. +1
This looks like the Triangulum Galaxy! +1