Voyager 1 Approaches Saturn – Full Disk

Voyager 1 was the second spacecraft to study Saturn up close. This photograph of Saturn was taken on Oct. 18, 1980, when the spacecraft was about 21 million miles (34 million kilometers) from the planet. The image was taken on the last day that Saturn and its rings could be captured within a single narrow-angle camera frame as the spacecraft closed in on the planet for its nearest approach on Nov. 12, 1980. Dione, one of Saturn's inner satellites, appears as a bright spot just below the planet's south pole.