FWIW, if you actually want to participate in this, be advised that you have to get there extremely early to get a good spot. I remember going out in 2009 about a couple hours early and the main spots (such as the Tudor overpass [0], which is elevated over a main street and is situated about as far east as you can go without being in the river) were already staked out by folks with tripods and telephoto lens.
I ended up hopping in a cab and having the cab driver go up and down the midtown streets. Didn't get any iconic shots [1] but it was fun, as the cab driver was really into it. But even 7 years ago, pre-Instagram, crowds of people would step out in front of traffic to get a shot of Manhattanhenge.
Uber wasn't around back then. I wonder if you could get better shots than I did from the back of a taxi by riding shotgun?
I always find it funny that the summer ManhattanHenges (there are two, one as the sun's inclination increases and one as it decreases) are so celebrated, yet the winter versions of the phenomena (when the sun lines up with the city grid at sunrise) are ignored. As someone who used to have to drive uphill along one of Manhattan's streets during my winter morning commute, they were far more noticeable/annoying.
I had an astronomy prof who cancelled morning classes on the days where the sun lined up with the roads. He even lobbied the university to make it some sort of road safety holiday.
If I had a time machine one of the things I'd do is go three thousand years into the future and laugh at the archeologists who speculate about our culture's obsession with astronomy because we built this "religious monument" that aligns with the sun on a particular day of the year.
If I had a time machine I'd go back and convince them to align the grid more perfectly, so that it happened precisely at the solstices instead of just before/after.
One theory is that archaic Manhattanites celebrated a long midsummer religious holiday. It began with the sun rising between the temples and ended weeks later with its setting between the temples. Of course, the constraints of underwater archeology makes definitive interpretation difficult.
Most things that run East/West will align on some day by pure chance. But the sites and research you seem to be mocking align on specific days like solstices or equinoxes.
That is a fun fact, and also explains why manhattanhenge only happens at sunset and not also sunrise. A true east-west sunrise/sunset occurs at the equinoxes (Spring and Fall)
Huh, we were just talking about this looking at the sunset behind Manhattan across the river from Brooklyn yesterday. Didn't know it was almost the exact day it happens.
I ended up hopping in a cab and having the cab driver go up and down the midtown streets. Didn't get any iconic shots [1] but it was fun, as the cab driver was really into it. But even 7 years ago, pre-Instagram, crowds of people would step out in front of traffic to get a shot of Manhattanhenge.
Uber wasn't around back then. I wonder if you could get better shots than I did from the back of a taxi by riding shotgun?
[0] https://foursquare.com/v/tudor-city-overpass/4fc6addde4b0115...
[1] From my Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/search/?w=32451477@N02&q=manhattanhen...