The Cloud Collector's Handbook

The perfect incentive for keeping your head in the clouds, The Cloud Collector's Handbook is a whimsical guide to the wonders of the sky. Throughout, author and cloud expert Gavin Pretor-Pinney catalogs a variety of clouds and gives readers points for spotting them and recording their finds. This fun and useful book features gorgeous full-color photographs that showcase a new type of cloud on every spread, from fluffy cumulus to the super rare horseshoe vortex to the wispy noctilucent clouds that hang at the fringes of space. Sure to be a hit with both aspiring and seasoned cloud gazers, this clever handbook will have everyone looking up.

Gavin Pretor-Pinney is the founder of the Cloud Appreciation Society, a global organization that fights "blue-sky thinking." He is also the co-founder and creative director of The Idler magazine and author of the best-selling The Cloudspotter's Guide. He lives in Somerset, England.

Ten main cloud types. Cumulus ; Stratocumulus ; Stratus ; Altocumulus ; Altostratus ; Cirrus ; Cirrocumulus ; Cirrostratus ; Nimbostratus ; Cumulonimbus — Notable species & varieties. Lenticularis ; Fibratus ; Castellanus ; Undulatus ; Lacunosus ; Radiatus ; Duplicatus — Accessory clouds & supplementary features. Pileus ; Velum ; Pannus ; Mamma ; Virga ; Arcus ; Tuba ; Incus — Other clouds. Cap & banner ; Kelvin-Helmholtz ; Contrails ; Pyrocumulus ; Roll cloud ; Fallstreak hole ; Horseshoe vortex ; Fog & mist ; Diamond dust ; Nacreous ; Noctilucent — Cloud optical effects. Iridescence ; Corona ; Crepuscular rays ; Glory ; Rainbow ; Cloudbow & fogbow ; 22 ̊ halo ; Sundog ; Circumzenithal arc ; Sun pillars — Technical terms — Cloud classification.