A rare second full moon arrives this week — and if you get the timing wrong, you'll miss its magic. Here's how to plan it precisely.
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I was standing beside a bay in the middle of a city, leaning on a railing with a pair of binoculars, checking my watch for the third time. Moonrise had come and gone — at least on paper — but the eastern horizon was a mess of low cloud and distant rooftops. Nothing.It's a familiar frustration for moon-gazers. You've done the planning, arrived early and picked your spot, but there's always a moment of doubt about whether you forgot some small detail. I kept scanning, sweeping slowly along the skyline, trying to second-guess where it might break through. Did I get the date wrong?!Then it happened. A sudden hint of deep orange, almost glowing through the haze — the full moon appearing between two buildings, distorted, oversized, awesome. For a few moments, it felt like my own private moonrise. No one else along the promenade had noticed. People walked past me, heads down, conversations uninterrupted.But there's only so long a man with binoculars goes unnoticed. One person stopped. Then another. Heads tilted upward, phones came out. Within minutes, the rising of the full moon was a public spectacle — all because I had done my homework and knew exactly when and where to look. Then got lucky with clouds.Unless you're happy to leave it to chance, for the coming full Blue Moon, preparation is everything (and, no, it won't be blue!). Here's how not to miss a full moonrise.What makes a full moonrise special
