Neptune's Bright Crescent

Neptune's bright crescent taken in six filters (from bottom to top: UV, violet, blue, clear, green, orange) on 31.3 August 1989. The images were shuttered in temporal order: violet, blue, UV, clear, green, orange. These images how the bright core of D2, the south polar feature, and the symmetric structure immediately surrounding the south pole. The relatively high contrast of the features in these images indicates that they extend above most of the scattering haze and absorbing methate gas in Neptune's atmosphere. [Image processing by D. A. Alexander]