SERIOUSLY CIRRUSY

The 2020 Cloudwatcher’s Calendar containing no fewer than five photographs of cirrus formations is flying, or perhaps scudding, off the shelves. From the clues, can you work out the month in which the picture appeared, the name of the photographer, the type of cirrus cloud portrayed and the colourful atmospheric phenomenon that added to the display?

Clues 1 The rainbow against a background of cirrocumulus (tiny fluffy clouds like grains of rice) was the featured image two months after the photograph by Al Tostratus and two months before the picture of the sun dog, a colourful bright spot beside the Sun also called a parhelion, which was not the work of Ray Diatus.

2 Len Ticularis’ picture, which was not the November image, showed cirrus uncinus, the beautiful formation also known as mare’s tails, but not as a background for iridescence, which was not featured in March.

3 The May illustration shows a circumzenithal arc (an upside-down rainbow at the top of the sky), but not the delicate lacy structure of cirrus lacunosis, which was also not the cloud featured in March.

4 The halo captured by Q Mulus was featured two months before the picture of the gossamer threads of cirrus fibratus, which was neither the work of Ray Diatus nor Cyrus Floccus, who did not photograph the iridescence.