May 28, 2004
Manhattanhenge Today
Besides it being the start of the summer, today is very special: The sun will set in the centerline of every NYC street (photobloggers, get ready!). American Museum of Natural History astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson desrcribes this phenomenon beautifully in the Natural History Magazine, explaining that like Stonehenge where the sun sets in alignment with stones during the summer solstice, Manhattan has two "special" days where the sun sets between buildings - May 28 and July 12:
On these days, the Sun fully illuminates every single cross street during the last fifteen minutes of daylight and sets exactly on the street's centerline. Upon studying American culture and what is important to it, future anthropologists might take the Manhattan alignments to be cosmic signs of Memorial Day and, of course, baseball's All-Star break.The weather looks iffy today, so we're not sure of visibility. Just mark your calendars to catch it on July 12.
If the Manhattan grid matched the geographic north-south line, then our special days would be the equinoxes, the two days on the calendar when the Sun rises due east and sets due west. But Manhattan is rotated 30 degrees east from geographic north, shifting the special days elsewhere in the calendar.
Many thanks to Michael, Roy, and Jason for telling us about this.
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holy crap, that's soooo cool!
I remember the first time I saw this happen, when I first moved to the city (many years ago). I didn't know what the phenomenon was called, but I remember being strangely compelled to walk home from work that day (about 40 blocks) just so I could keep watching the sun. And I totally thought of Stonehenge at the time.
That is really cool.
Okay, this couldn't be further off topic, but I've been wondering about this since I saw the Post today, with the great headline, "Hooked."
What is it about Islam and blind terrorist sheiks? You've got the one-armed guy with a hook who was arrested yesterday in London, the guy who was arrested after the first WTC bombing, and Yassin, the guy who Israel killed. Am I missing any?
Um, I usually wait until the Summer solstice to start my summer. It's the pagan in me. Cool item for what's sure to be a hot one, though.
Please, don't anyone tell hack author Dan Brown about this mystical alignment or he'll figure out a way to tie it into a centuries-old Catholic Church conspiracy. And by strange coincidence "Manhattan" is an anagram for "Ham-Nan-Tat," the ancient Egyptian godess of fertility, whose remains reside in a mysterious crypt in a long-forgotten basement of the Museum of Natural History...
And don't forget MIThenge
girlygirl--you are cool.
I second that - love these tidbits, girlygirl!
It turned out absolutely gorgeous.
sweet