Manhattanhenge (APOD 13 July 2007)

[Duck]

Wouldn't the sunset also be visible (from the other end of the street) sometime in November and January?

[ebow]

The other end of the street... do you mean from the west-northwest (i.e., near the Hudson), looking southeast? That would let you see the sunrise, not the sunset. I'm not sure about the dates, but Nov. and Jan. sound about right.

[Duck]

You're right. It would be sunrise.

Thanks.

[tollwilly125]

We have a similar thing at MIT along the infinite corridor:

MIThenge

http://web.mit.edu/planning/www/mithenge.html

[TimeTravel123456789]

Neil De Grasse Tyson's posting is wonderful for me because it says to me

that effects we see with Irish rock collections, Stonehedge, South American temple effects are similar to things that we build. The field of
archaeastronomy is explored a little at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago. I like the exhibit; some other people do not. I think it is one of the Adler's best done exhibits while others do not agree.

Two observations---

1. Was the construction intentionally built that way?

2. In theory, would not every city in the world have a street alignment with some sort of similar effect?


Look forward to your intelligent responses.

Happy unlucky July 13th. Have to read later what that was about.

[Case]

1. Was the construction intentionally built that way?

Stonehenge? No doubt. Winter Solstice was quite important as a calendar marking in the year to ancient civilizations.
New York streets? It must have been a hip design thing a the time to match streets to map lines (north-south, east-west). I doubt the rising or setting sun has anything to with it.

2. In theory, would not every city in the world have a street alignment with some sort of similar effect?

It seems to be an American thing to lay down street lanes like that. The only European city with long straight street lanes (that I know of) is Paris, but those streets do not go north-south or east-west, but at some other angle. All other streets make lots of curves, thus not giving a construction for sunlight to pass through.