Astronaut photograph ISS044-E-45215 was acquired on August 9, 2015 by a member of the Expedition 44 crew, with a Nikon D4 digital camera using a 28 millimeter lens, and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. > For more info check source: https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/stargazing-from-international-space-station/ Nebulae and dust clouds aren't a single solid color. That is why the skyboxes suck btw. Also nebulae aren't very visible from the inside, externally they are very visible if they have stellar activity highlighting them from behind, but usually not in the colors we are shown. Most space photography (that actually occurs in space) doesn't include the stars in the background due to the cameras being calibrated for a specific research subject. This is a rare instance of a basic civilian camera being used to photograph stars for the sake of just taking a photo of them.