Students on the Half Moon are encouraged to observe the cloud cover above us — which often varies wildly over the course of a given Voyage of Discovery.
Students can 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.
These cloud formations affect our work on the Half Moon in several ways. First, they can serve as an indicator of incoming weather patterns. More seriously, however, overcast skies can make celestial navigation nearly impossible. Fortunately for our student researchers, the several days of overcast skies cleared just in time for them to complete their project as intended.
