Manhattanhenge

http://www.haydenplanetarium.org/resources/starstruck/manhattanhenge

by wglb • 14 years ago

120 33 14 years ago

jgrahamc2• 14 years ago

"What will future civilizations think of Manhattan Island when they dig it up and find a carefully laid out network of streets and avenues? Surely the grid would be presumed to have astronomical significance, just as we have found for the pre-historic circle of large vertical rocks known as Stonehenge, in the Salisbury Plain of England. For Stonehenge, the special day is the summer solstice, when the Sun rises in perfect alignment with several of the stones, signaling the change of season."

No, if they notice this they'll go: "Any grid on the Earth's surface has the same effect, it's just question of the angle" and then they'll be quiet about it. Stonehenge is interesting because its alignment is specific to the solstice so anyone digging it up can see that it was built for a purpose. Manhattan on the other hand doesn't seem to have any specific purpose from an astronomical perspective and if you look at the shape of the island you'll see that the avenues were built parallel to the long 'sides' of it. So, I hope future people will be sensible and not start looking for some astronomical significance to Manhattan.

JoachimSchipper• 14 years ago

If everything is the same every year, though,

> Future anthropologists might conclude that, via the Sun, the people who called themselves Americans worshiped War and Baseball.

doesn't seem entirely implausible to me. (Of course, the anthropologists would be in error, it's just vaguely reasonable if you haven't seen anything else.)

jgrahamc2• 14 years ago

"For 2012 they fall on May 29th, and July 12th" and "These two days happen to correspond with Memorial Day and Baseball's All Star break".

More mystic crap. Memorial Day in 2012 is May 28, not May 29 and the MLB All Star Break beings July 9. Neil deGrasse Tyson shouldn't even write like this, getting drawn into mystical interpretations, even in jest, just reinforces the idea that it's worth thinking about crap like that.

afterburner2• 14 years ago

Agreed. I ignored the hyperbole about future anthropologists and took this as tips for photography in Manhattan.

rweba• 14 years ago

GUYS! I am pretty sure those little Stonehenge references are are just humor. The author is not REALLY suggesting that future civilization would be puzzled by Manhattan's grid. The comparisons with Stonehenge are just an amusing way of pointing out this phenomena that many people are probably not aware of.

Personally I think it is pretty cool that the perfect conditions for observing this are only available in a few cities - despite the fact there must be a lot of cities around the world with skyscrapers and grid like street plans.

andyl• 14 years ago

a classic well-actually (see http://tirania.org/blog/archive/2011/Feb-17.html)

tokenadult• 14 years ago

Tyson has enough street-cred as a skeptic

http://www.skepticality.com/neil-degrasse-tyson/

that I'm sure his tongue is firmly in his cheek when he writes of future civilizations speculating on cultural reasons for Manhattan's grid alignment.

By the way, I especially like the last paragraph of the submitted post, which assumes a readership mostly in the temperate zone of the Northern Hemisphere: "While we are on the subject, when viewed from all latitudes north of the Tropic of Cancer (23.5 degrees north latitude), the Sun always rises at an angle up and to the right, and sets and an angle down and to the right. That's how you can spot a faked sunrise in a movie: it moves up and to the left. Filmmakers are not typically awake in the morning hours to film an actual sunrise, so they film a sunset instead, and then time-reverse it, thinking nobody will notice."

jcurbo• 14 years ago

Tyson had a funny bit when he recently appeared on the Daily Show - he noted that the spinning Earth at the beginning of the show was spinning backwards.

Drbble• 14 years ago

Any examples of this on YouTube? What movies have sunrise scenes long enough to see sun motion?

mkopinsky• 14 years ago

...which assumes a readership mostly in the temperate zone of the Northern Hemisphere...

should be: which assumes a film industry mostly in the temperate zone of the Northern Hemisphere

JerusaEnt• 14 years ago

The difference is that I'm sure that Manhattan is well documented. Where Stonehenge is not.

zmanji• 14 years ago

It depends on how much of that documentation will survive.

pyrotechnick• 14 years ago

"Future anthropologists might conclude that, via the Sun, the people who called themselves Americans worshiped War and Baseball."

It may not be via the sun but I'm afraid for those of us looking in from outside the fishbowl, the vast majority of Americans indeed worship War and Baseball.

delinka2• 14 years ago

s/Baseball/Football/

Karellen3• 14 years ago

For those of us looking in, we already have a game called football, so s/Baseball/American Football/

adgar• 14 years ago

To those so socially stagnant to not realize that Neil deGrasse Tyson wrote this for a broader audience, and who feel an intense need to "correct" him regarding details about Stonehenge: grow up.

afterburner2• 14 years ago

Top comment is basically saying, "your joke is lame, and this devalues the significance of Stonehenge." Some of the "wider audience", who may or may not be familiar with Stonehenge's properties, may in fact conclude, "so Stonehenge is basically BS like this?"

It's a bit of an over-wrought setup for what is basically a tip on when to get the sun just right for a nice photo in Manhattan. Still appreciate the tip, though. The setup is no doubt amusing to some and not others. I feel like for this kind of thing, both camps' opinions are perfectly valid, since it's a matter of personal preference. And that the "negative" opinion was expressed in a HN thread is... not surprising in the least.

sparknlaunch12• 14 years ago

This is fantastic. For most people, this type of stuff goes unnoticed. However this is great. I think we should start compiling a list of similar alignments around the world?

dominicgs• 14 years ago

Such as the alleged alignment of the Box Tunnel on Brunel's birthday? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Box_Tunnel#Brunel.27s_birthday

wittjeff• 14 years ago

See also the poster and concept of the same name by artist Heidi Neilson (2009): http://www.heidineilson.com/manhattanhenge.php

mynameishere• 14 years ago

All I see is myself squinting painfully trying to see ahead and not crash.

whatusername2• 14 years ago

As an interesting aside -- I visited Ireland last year and became aware of this place: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newgrange

Possibly the oldest 'intact' human built structure in the world. Much older than stonehenge or the Pyramids.

mtr• 14 years ago

FYI it appears these are older: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megalithic_Temples_of_Malta

whatusername2• 14 years ago

Thanks.

Although now I'm in the wikipedia rabbit hole -- looking at fascinating places like this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knap_of_Howar (potentially older than those Malta temples) and most of the other sites on this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_oldest_buildings_in...

ndotl• 14 years ago

Obligatory MIT version: MITHenge. http://web.mit.edu/planning/www/mithenge.html

Manhattanhenge

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