Students learn how to determine the percentage of cloud cover in the sky, and how to identify distinct cloud formations, such as curling cirrus clouds, flat stratus clouds, or puffy cumulus clouds.

Our voyage began under densely overcast skies, with sunlight little more than a diffuse glow in the sky. Over the course of Day Two, however, a high pressure system pushed into the region, dispersing the clouds and leaving us with crystal clear skies. Clear skies that came associated with frost warnings, that is, but you can't win every time. The overcast skies returned on Day Four, however, nearly forcing Ben and Brandon to abandon their celestial tracking project before, at the very last moment, blue skies finally broke through once more.