ARC-1989-AC89-7043

Range : 14.8 million km. ( 9.2 million miles) P-34595C This contrast enhanced color photograph of Neptune was produced from images taken through the orange, green, and violet filters of the narrow angle camera. As Voyager 2 approaches Neptune, rapidly increasing image resolution is revealing striking new details in the planet's atmosphere, and this pictureshows features as small as a few hundred kilometers in extent. Bright, wispy 'cirrus-type' clouds are seen overlying the Great Dark Spot (GDS) at its southern (lower) margin and over its northwest ( upper left) boundary. This is the first evidence that the GDS lies lower in the atmosphere than these bright clouds, which have remained in its vicinity for several months. Increasing detail in global banding, and the south polar can also be seen. A smaller dark spot at high southern latitudes is dimly visible near the limb at lower left.