A Circumhorizontal Arc [Photo: Discover]

For millennia, the sky has provided a spectacular show with bright, quiet sunrises and fiery red sunsets, the wispy, whimsical patterns of clouds passing overhead, or the violent thrill of lightning flashing at night.

US naturalist Tim Herd explained the conditions that produce these every-day phenomena, as well as rarer sights including auroras, halos, mirages, arcs, and even moonbows (nighttime rainbows often too faint to see) in his new book, Kaleidoscope Sky, which also rated the 10 most amazing thing the sky can do.

Although the subject is complex, Herd provides a clear, accessible guided tour of the fleeting, ephemeral works of art that populate the heavens’ own natural museum, according to the US-based Discover Magazine.