The Cloud Collector's handbook by Gavin Pretor-Pinney.

The Cloud Collector's handbook by Gavin Pretor-Pinney.

   

The sky, 2020, Myungja Anna Koh

  ​As a child, the most precious habit in my daily routine was to look up at the sky. I lived in a house between buildings. I could see the clouds passing through the buildings when I came out. I was so happy to see the clouds passing swiftly through the desolate concrete structures as if they were drawn together, as if they were unraveling each white thread as if they were painting a picture. And when I became a painter and painted, I remember the joy and wonder of that time. I often do not want to miss such a beautiful sky, so I take it on camera.

  Recently, when I saw a rainbow that was turned upside down, I wanted to know the name of the rainbow, so I read a book. The book was a gift from a friend of my son. the title is "The cloud collector's handbook".  

​ The book's author, Gavin Pretor-Pinney, is the founder of the Cloud Appreciation Society, which has more than 47,000 members in 120 countries, and was founded to fight the banality of the 'blue sky thinking'. 

  "To fight the banality of the 'blue sky thinking' ", I like his idea and motivation. Because this kind of thinking is directly connected to art.

​I have seen the same unusual rainbow 3 times this year. It was an upside-down rainbow, a rainbow I had never seen before. 

My child saw this rainbow and said, "Mom!  Rainbow is smiling" and gave it the name Smile Rainbow.

Through this book, I learned that the name of the rainbow is Circumzenithal Arc and it's phenomenon.

 The circumzenithal arc is a holo phenomenon that appears like a multicolored smile in the sky. It look as if some fool's got a rainbow snap upside down, but this bow of colors actually appears in a totally different part of the sky from rainbows. On the 25 or so times a year that it appears, it forms high up in the sky, like the fragment closest to the sun of a circle around the zenith. (excerpt by the book) 

  ​ 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. 

 ​If there are people who have lost interest in looking at and observing the sky because of the stereotypical prejudice of blue sky, this book will give them a lot of interest in knowing how many different sky and clouds exist and how they are made.

Also, it would be good to visit the Cloud Appreciation Society founded by Gavin Pretor-Pinney, who compiled this book against prejudice against the banal blue sky.