APOD: 2026 October 1 – Harvest Moon with Erupting Mount Etna

NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day for October 1, 2026, featured a composite photograph titled "Harvest Moon with Erupting Mount Etna," captured last weekend in Sicily just outside Nicosia, Italy, by photographer Dario Giannobile. The image displays the full moon rising as the sky darkens, accompanied by lower clouds reflecting antitwilight colors, the pink Belt of Venus lower in the sky, and ash and gas from Mount Etna in the background.

The publication notes that full moons occur when the Moon and Sun are in opposition, with the lunar phase cycle lasting approximately 29.5 days while the Moon takes about 27 days to orbit Earth. In the Northern Hemisphere, the September full moon is traditionally called the Harvest Moon. The feature was edited by Cecilia Chirenti, Robert Nemiroff, Jerry Bonnell, and Keighley Rockcliffe, as a service of ASD at NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA Science Activation, and Michigan Tech.

Additionally, the announcement noted that APOD’s main NASA site has relocated from apod.nasa.gov to science.nasa.gov/apod, and its image submission email address has changed.