Full Moon Will Be Rare Halloween Treat

For the first time in 46 years, tonight’s Halloween ghosts and goblins can trick or treat by the light of a full moon. They won’t get another chance until 2020, astronomers said.

The full moon will look like an orange jack-o’-lantern rising from the east at dusk, said Jack Horkheimer, executive director of the Miami Space Transit Planetarium.

It will appear orange at the horizon because it is seen through denser layers of the earth’s atmosphere.

Some astronomers believe jack-o’-lantern carving was inspired by the rising, orange October moon, said Horkheimer, writer and host of PBS’ “Star Gazer” series.