Pet Clouds
Illustration
Stories
While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. (v. 34)
Remember Pet Rocks? Some marketing genius in the mid-seventies packed rocks as pets that provided solid companionship and required next to no maintenance. The rocks came in boxes with ventilation holes and instructions for their care. Though the fad was short-lived, it lasted long enough to make its creator a millionaire. And more recently, they’ve become a craze again in South Korea.
Then there was the Tamagotchi craze of the late nineties (the name means “Egg Watch” in Japanese). You named your little electronic pet, and the more attention you gave it, the “happier” and “healthier” it became. You could “train” them, and you had to “clean” up the environment the pet lived in on the screen.
But how about a “pet cloud?” Well, you don’t walk them or feed them or care for them, but Pet Clouds are a real thing!
How many times have you looked up in the sky and seen a cloud that stopped you in your tracks? Later, you may say to someone, “No, really, it looked like a whale, swimming through the sky, with two baby whales nearby.” And if your friend is anything like polite at all, they’ll say, “That must have been interesting,” instead of what they’re really thinking!
Nowadays with smart phones it’s a lot easier to take a quick photo so others can look at the cloud too and say, “You’re right. It does look like a whale!” even though it doesn’t.
Of course, the best-case scenario would be if your favorite cloud appeared at regular intervals, almost on command. Well, believe it or not, there are certain places on earth where a phenomenon known as a “pet cloud” appears regularly at the same place. Everyone can see it. Everyone can photograph it, including satellites in space.
One of those “pet clouds” appears in a valley in the South Island of New Zealand. The cloud, often seven miles in length, makes its appearance over the Otago region between the towns of Hyde and Middlemarch. Locals refer to it as the “Taieri Pet.” This particular cloud has been described as looking like a stack of plates, or a stack of pancakes, hundreds of yards high. The cloud is familiar enough to locals to have earned its “pet” name.
This particular type of cloud is technically known as a lenticular cloud, which according to the Oxford English Dictionary means, “having the shape of a lens or a lentil.” The word is used to describe beds, fevers, ganglions, glands, and any devices also having that unique shape. That lens shape suggests a flying saucer to some, and is credited by the United Kingdom Meteorological Office as being the commonest explanation for UFO sightings.
A lenticular cloud is not safe to fly into, because they are often colder that their surrounds, with the result that ice can form on the wings of aircraft. They are often a bell weather for changing climatological conditions, often an increase in rainfall.
In addition to appearing in New Zealand, they are also spotted above the telescopes on Hawaii’s Mauna Kea, Mount Kilimanjaro, the Mayon Volcano in the Philippines, and other beautiful spots.
In contrast to natural phenomena like lenticular clouds, which obey the laws of science, are predictable, and repeatable, and explainable, the cloud which descended upon the Jesus and his three disciples at the time of the Transfiguration was neither predictable, repeatable, or explainable – but it was extraordinarily revealing. Not only were two mighty prophets, Moses and Elijah, revealed upon the mountaintop, but Jesus was revealed as a being of divine light and majesty, and the divine voice was heard as well.
(Want to know more? Follow these links to articles at space.com. You may wish to download [and properly credit] photographs to display with the story).
Earth from space: Bizarre 'pet cloud' reappears above its favorite spot in New Zealand | Space
Ghostly 'UFO cloud' hovering over mountains wows judges in weather photo contest | Space
Flying saucer-shaped cloud floats above Hawaiian telescopes | Space
Remember Pet Rocks? Some marketing genius in the mid-seventies packed rocks as pets that provided solid companionship and required next to no maintenance. The rocks came in boxes with ventilation holes and instructions for their care. Though the fad was short-lived, it lasted long enough to make its creator a millionaire. And more recently, they’ve become a craze again in South Korea.
Then there was the Tamagotchi craze of the late nineties (the name means “Egg Watch” in Japanese). You named your little electronic pet, and the more attention you gave it, the “happier” and “healthier” it became. You could “train” them, and you had to “clean” up the environment the pet lived in on the screen.
But how about a “pet cloud?” Well, you don’t walk them or feed them or care for them, but Pet Clouds are a real thing!
How many times have you looked up in the sky and seen a cloud that stopped you in your tracks? Later, you may say to someone, “No, really, it looked like a whale, swimming through the sky, with two baby whales nearby.” And if your friend is anything like polite at all, they’ll say, “That must have been interesting,” instead of what they’re really thinking!
Nowadays with smart phones it’s a lot easier to take a quick photo so others can look at the cloud too and say, “You’re right. It does look like a whale!” even though it doesn’t.
Of course, the best-case scenario would be if your favorite cloud appeared at regular intervals, almost on command. Well, believe it or not, there are certain places on earth where a phenomenon known as a “pet cloud” appears regularly at the same place. Everyone can see it. Everyone can photograph it, including satellites in space.
One of those “pet clouds” appears in a valley in the South Island of New Zealand. The cloud, often seven miles in length, makes its appearance over the Otago region between the towns of Hyde and Middlemarch. Locals refer to it as the “Taieri Pet.” This particular cloud has been described as looking like a stack of plates, or a stack of pancakes, hundreds of yards high. The cloud is familiar enough to locals to have earned its “pet” name.
This particular type of cloud is technically known as a lenticular cloud, which according to the Oxford English Dictionary means, “having the shape of a lens or a lentil.” The word is used to describe beds, fevers, ganglions, glands, and any devices also having that unique shape. That lens shape suggests a flying saucer to some, and is credited by the United Kingdom Meteorological Office as being the commonest explanation for UFO sightings.
A lenticular cloud is not safe to fly into, because they are often colder that their surrounds, with the result that ice can form on the wings of aircraft. They are often a bell weather for changing climatological conditions, often an increase in rainfall.
In addition to appearing in New Zealand, they are also spotted above the telescopes on Hawaii’s Mauna Kea, Mount Kilimanjaro, the Mayon Volcano in the Philippines, and other beautiful spots.
In contrast to natural phenomena like lenticular clouds, which obey the laws of science, are predictable, and repeatable, and explainable, the cloud which descended upon the Jesus and his three disciples at the time of the Transfiguration was neither predictable, repeatable, or explainable – but it was extraordinarily revealing. Not only were two mighty prophets, Moses and Elijah, revealed upon the mountaintop, but Jesus was revealed as a being of divine light and majesty, and the divine voice was heard as well.
(Want to know more? Follow these links to articles at space.com. You may wish to download [and properly credit] photographs to display with the story).
Earth from space: Bizarre 'pet cloud' reappears above its favorite spot in New Zealand | Space
Ghostly 'UFO cloud' hovering over mountains wows judges in weather photo contest | Space
Flying saucer-shaped cloud floats above Hawaiian telescopes | Space
