What is the name of the imaging system on Voyager?

Voyager’s imaging system is called the Imaging Science Subsystem. Usually abbreviated ISS, it was the spacecraft’s television-style camera system for photographing planets, moons, rings and other targets along the mission’s path.

The subsystem contained two slow-scan vidicon cameras: a wide-angle camera for broader views and a narrow-angle camera for higher-resolution details. Each camera had a commandable filter wheel with eight filters, allowing scientists to record images in different portions of the visible spectrum and selected ultraviolet or methane-sensitive bands.

The narrow-angle camera captured the famous “Pale Blue Dot,” while the wide-angle camera provided broader context for the Solar System Family Portrait. The ISS was based on earlier Mariner camera technology, but it was adapted for the extreme distances and faint targets encountered by Voyager.

A common mix-up is to call the instruments simply “the Voyager cameras” or to confuse ISS with the International Space Station. On Voyager, ISS means Imaging Science Subsystem, and its cameras were eventually switched off to preserve power for the spacecraft’s continuing deep-space mission.