By Carol Tannenhauser
Tonight — Sunday, May 29 — is the first night to view Manhattanhenge 2022, a spectacular series of sunsets that occur twice a year when the sun aligns with Manhattan’s street grid, creating a beautiful sight when viewed from east/west cross streets, according to the American Museum of Natural History.
“The name is a New Yorker-style nod to Stonehenge, the ancient rock structure in the English countryside that aligns with the sunsets and sunrises during the summer and winter solstices,” The New York Times explained. “That pre-modern monument was purposely built for religious and spiritual reasons. In contrast, the grid of New York City was not designed with sunsets in mind, but it has ended up functioning in a similar manner. Across four days every May and July, it can bring people together to admire our particular geographic location in the cosmos as the sun settles into the horizon, disappearing perfectly along the city’s broad west-east corridors”.
This Memorial Day weekend, Manhattanhenge will occur twice: Sunday, May 29, a half sun at 8:13 p.m. Eastern time; and Monday, May 30, a full sun at 8:12 p.m.
Neil deGrasse Tyson noted that this year the first two days happen to coincide with Memorial Day and Baseball’s All-Star Game, speculating that future anthropologists “might conclude that, via the Sun, the people who called themselves Americans worshipped War and Baseball.”
The next opportunities to view Manhattanhenge will be on July 11, at 8:20 p.m. (Full Sun); and July 12th, 8:21 p.m. (Half Sun).
Enjoy the sight — and please take pictures and send them to info@westsiderag.com and we’ll build a beautiful thread!
Two photos by Ruth Bernstein. 205 Lincoln Towers Garden 8:05 and 8:11pm.
The first two days coincide with Memorial Day, only. The second two days coincide with baseball’s All Star break (which occurs in July, midway through a regular season that runs April to September).