Posted on 07/15/2011 10:15:41 AM PDT by Daffynition
Rare clouds and nerdy notes. (Altocumulus lacunosus © Kate Brooks).
You might well think that cloud collecting sounds like a ridiculous idea. How can anyone collect such ephemeral and free-spirited things as clouds? Surely, they’re just about as uncollectable as anything gets.
Magicked into being by the inscrutable laws of the atmosphere, clouds exist in a state of constant flux, shifting effortlessly from one form to another. One moment, they’re joining and spreading into undulating layers. The next, they’re breaking into torn shreds. One moment, they’re building upwards in enormous, weighty towers with dark, brooding bases. The next, they’re cascading back down in delicate, translucent streaks. And then they’re gone – shedding their moisture as rain or just evaporating into the blue. They’re like expressions on the face of the sky, and certainly not candidates for a display case. Given all the possible things you might consider collecting, clouds would seem to be a completely rubbish option.
But that’s where you’re wrong. You don’t have to own something to collect it. You don’t even have to hold it. You just have to notice it and record it.
The Cloud Collector’s Handbook acts as a complement to the photographs you take of the sky. Of course, you don’t have to take pictures to add clouds to your collection, but few cloudspotters can resist.
While it may not have the tactile quality of a collection of coins, nor the swapability of one of rare stamps, there’s something honest about a collection of clouds. They embody the impermanence of the world around us. ‘Nature’, wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson, ‘is a mutable cloud which is always and never the same.’
Altocumulus lenticularis cloud over the Nevada-California border, US:
45 cloud-collecting points
© Bryan Hightower
The Cloud Collector’s Handbook works not just as a reference, but also as a game. You earn ‘cloud-collecting points’ for each cloud that you spot. These points are given on the reference pages on this site (on the bottom right of the image pages). The handbook also lists bonus points that can be earned when the cloud has a particular special feature.
The maximum score possible (including bonus points) is 2,000. If anyone manages to get all these points, and has taken photographs of the clouds in their collection to prove it, we will award them some fabulous prize.
We haven’t decided what it’ll be yet, as we’re confident this won’t happen any time soon.
I found used/paperback copies on Amazon for: $2.93. What deal! Also available for Kindle.
Nifty! I’ll try it on the 3yo to get her more observant.
Nice. Book is also for sale via Amazon USA.
I used to know a guy who collected clouds, literally. He was doing chemical testing of clouds for his graduate thesis. He went around to places like lakes and mountains that had fog, which is just a cloud at ground level, and took samples of the water vapor.
Used for $2.93.
I just bought the Nook version.
Was just at the pool this afternoon...had about a dozen kids going crazy with it on the Nook....I’m about to be known as the *cloud lady*...we had fun.
Nice.
Nice. Thanks for sharing.
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