CICLOPS: Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for OPerationS
Neptune - Great Dark Spot and Scooter

This image of clouds in Neptune's atmosphere is the first that tests the accuracy of the weather forecast that was made eight days earlier to select targets for the Voyager narrow angle camera. Three of the four targeted features are visible in this photograph; all three are close to their predicted locations. The Great Dark Spot with its bright white companion is slightly to the left of center. The small bright Scooter is below and to the left, and the second dark spot with its bright core is below the Scooter. Strong eastward winds up to 400 mph cause the second dark spot to overtake and pass the larger one every five days.

The spacecraft was 6.1 million kilometers (3.8 million miles) from the planet at the time of camera shuttering, and the images uses the orange, green and clear filters of the camera.

The Voyager Project is managed for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

Acquired: August 1989 		  Neptune - Great Dark Spot and Scooter
PIA 00048

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