The Cloud Collector's Handbook

Our full-colour cloudspotting handbook is now available. This beautiful little publication is filled with amazing photographs from society members of all the common cloud types as well as many rare and unusual clouds and optical effects. `The Cloud Collector's Handbook' has rounded corners so that it will fit into the pocket easily, allowing cloudspotters to identify a huge range of cloud formations and optical effects anytime and anywhere. But it is not just a reference - it is also a game. Every cloud type is described with informative and entertaining explanations and the handbook works as your personal record of the different formations you have spotted. The idea is that, over time, you build up a `collection' of clouds, noting their details in the spaces provided. As you spot each cloud type, you earn points, depending on how rare it is. A common old Stratocumulus only earns you 10 points, while the fleeting and dramatic Kelvin-Helmholtz cloud, which looks like a series of breaking waves, earns you 55. The book makes a great gift, and is the perfect accompaniment to the uplifting and recession-proof pastime of cloudspotting. Our only worry is that it will turn otherwise relaxed nature lovers in to bitter rivals, desperate to amass more cloud-collecting points than their friends...