Twice a 12 months, New Yorkers and guests are handled to a phenomenon often known as Manhattanhenge, when the setting solar aligns with the Manhattan road grid and sinks under the horizon framed in a canyon of skyscrapers.
The occasion is a favourite of photographers and sometimes brings folks out onto sidewalks on spring and summer time evenings to look at this distinctive sundown.
The primary Manhattanhenge of the 12 months takes place Wednesday at 8:13 p.m., with a slight variation occurring once more Thursday at 8:12 p.m. It would happen once more on July 11 and 12.
Some background on the phenomenon:
The place does the identify Manhattanhenge come from?
Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson coined the time period in a 1997 article within the journal Pure Historical past. Tyson, the director of the Hayden Planetarium at New York’s American Museum of Pure Historical past, mentioned he was impressed by a go to to Stonehenge as an adolescent.
The longer term host of TV exhibits equivalent to PBS’ “Nova ScienceNow” was a part of an expedition led by Gerald Hawkins, the scientist who first theorized that Stonehenge’s mysterious megaliths had been an historical astronomical observatory.
It struck Tyson, a local New Yorker, that the setting solar framed by Manhattan’s high-rises could possibly be in comparison with the solar’s rays placing the middle of the Stonehenge circle on the solstice.
Not like the Neolithic Stonehenge builders, the planners who laid out Manhattan didn’t imply to channel the solar. It simply labored out that manner.
When is Manhattanhenge?
Manhattanhenge doesn’t happen on the summer time solstice itself, which is June 20 this 12 months. As a substitute, it occurs about three weeks earlier than and after the solstice. That is when the solar aligns itself completely with the Manhattan grid’s east-west streets.
Viewers get two completely different variations of the phenomenon to select from.
On Could 28 and July 12, half the solar will likely be above the horizon and half under it in the meanwhile of alignment with Manhattan’s streets, in keeping with the Hayden Planetarium.
On Could 29 and July 11, the entire solar will seem to hover between buildings simply earlier than sinking into the New Jersey horizon throughout the Hudson River.
The place are you able to see Manhattanhenge?
The normal viewing spots are alongside the town’s broad east-west thoroughfares: 14th Avenue, twenty third Avenue, thirty fourth Avenue, forty second Avenue and 57th Avenue.
The farther east you go, the extra dramatic the vista because the solar’s rays hit constructing facades on both aspect. Additionally it is attainable to see Manhattanhenge throughout the East River within the Lengthy Island Metropolis part of Queens.
Is Manhattanhenge an organized occasion?
Manhattanhenge viewing events are usually not unknown, however it’s principally a DIY affair. Individuals collect on east-west streets a half-hour or so earlier than sundown and snap picture after picture as nightfall approaches. That is if the climate is okay. There is not any seen Manhattanhenge on wet or cloudy days, and each are sadly within the forecast this week.
Do different cities have ‘henges’?
Comparable results happen in different cities with uniform road grids. Chicagohenge and Baltimorehenge occur when the setting solar traces up with the grid techniques in these cities in March and September, across the spring and fall equinoxes. Torontohenge happens in February and October.
However Manhattanhenge is especially placing due to the peak of the buildings and the unobstructed path to the Hudson.
