On its approach to Neptune in August 1989, Voyager 2 captured this image of the fourth and outermost of the giant gas planets. This image shows two of the four oval cloud features tracked by the cameras. The large dark oval near the left edge revolves around Neptune every 18 hours. The bright clouds immediately to the south and east of this oval substantially change their appearance in periods as short as 4 hours. The second dark spot, at lower right edge, revolves around Neptune every 16 hours.

The location of clouds in Neptune's atmosphere was used for testing the accuracy of Neptunian weather forecasts to aid in the selection of targets for the narrow-angle camera. Three of the four targeted features are visible here, and 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 vivid Scooter is below and to the left, and Dark Spot 2 with its shiny core is below Scooter. Strong eastward winds, up to 644 kph (400 mph), caused the smaller dark spot to overtake and pass the larger one every five days.

The three features visible here are among the most interesting on Neptune. At the top is the Great Dark Spot, accompanied by bright, white clouds that change rapidly with time. Below the dark spot is a bright feature that scientists nicknamed "Scooter." Below Scooter is the Small Dark Spot. All three features move eastward at different velocities, so it is rare that they can all be photographed together.

Feathery white clouds fill the boundary between the dark and light blue regions on the Great Dark Spot. The spiral shape of both the dark boundary and the white cirrus suggests a storm system rotating counterclockwise. Periodic small-scale patterns in the white cloud, possibly waves, are short-lived and do not persist from one Neptunian rotation to the next. Depicted here is the last face-on view of the Great Dark Spot that Voyager 2 made with its narrow-angle camera. The image was shuttered 45 hours before closest approach.

The rings around Neptune are so faint that when Voyager's cameras captured this image, the brightness of Neptune nearly made them impossible to detect. The black box in the center of the image is where Neptune was blocked out because no detail was visible given the long exposure time required to capture the almost invisible rings. The bright glow at the edges of the black box is some of the light reflected from Neptune. Two sharp rings are visible, Leverrier and Adams, and one faint ring, Galle, is barely visible inside them.