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What does Neptune look like through a small telescope?
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Neptune
A photograph of clouds in Neptune's atmosphere, taken by Voyager 2 in August 1989. The view is from below the planet's equator, and north is up. The Great Dark Spot (center left) is 13,000 km (8,100 miles)āabout the diameter of Earthāin its longer dimension. Accompanying it are bright, wispy clouds thought to comprise methane ice crystals. At higher southern latitudes lies a smaller, eye-shaped dark spot with a light core (bottom left). Just above that spot is a bright cloud dubbed Scooter. Each of these cloud features was seen to travel eastward but at a different rate, the Great Dark Spot moving the slowest.
When viewed through a small telescope, Neptune appears as a tiny, faint blue-green disk.12
Because of its great distance from Earth, it is not visible to the unaided eye. Its appearance through a small telescope is limited by this distance, and Earth-based observations prior to modern technological advancements could not resolve features smaller than about one-tenth of the planet's diameter.123