
Manhattanhenge  - wglb
http://www.haydenplanetarium.org/resources/starstruck/manhattanhenge
======
jgrahamc
"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.

~~~
tokenadult
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."

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

~~~
Karellen
Plenty of movies have time-lapsed scenes of the sun going up and coming down.
Vampire movies are a notable example, because of the significance of the sun.
I'm pretty sure "Blade" had a couple of examples.

Films featuring people trapped and forced to survive in the desert are
probably also good candidates. And some romances where the couple watch the
sun set on a beach, or possibly watch it rise having had that "first talk" all
through the night.

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

------
whatusername
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
FYI it appears these are older:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megalithic_Temples_of_Malta>

~~~
whatusername
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...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_oldest_buildings_in_the_world)

------
ndotl
Obligatory MIT version: MITHenge.
<http://web.mit.edu/planning/www/mithenge.html>

------
sparknlaunch12
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
Such as the alleged alignment of the Box Tunnel on Brunel's birthday?
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Box_Tunnel#Brunel.27s_birthday>

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

~~~
zmanji
It depends on how much of that documentation will survive.

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

------
pyrotechnick
"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.

~~~
delinka
s/Baseball/Football/

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

~~~
delinka
Fair point. I debated using that phrase to be more technically correct. I
opted for brevity at the expense of accuracy.

~~~
prophetjohn
You were still perfectly correct. The name of the sport is "football." If you
call it an apple and they say, "no, it's a green apple," then you're not
wrong; they're just pedantic.

~~~
Karellen
For "those of us looking in" (see parent^5, which this thread is about) it's
not just pedantry but a necessary distinction. Although your game's True Name
might very well be "football", to all of the rest of us "football" means
Association Football (soccer). If you say "football", we'll instinctively
think "soccer".

Every. Single. Time.

Sometime's we'll double-take, realise it's an American talking, and they
probably actually mean "American Football". But it's not what we think of
first, and if we're not sure if it's an American speaking (like you can't on
the internet) then it may well not occur to us.

~~~
prophetjohn
2 more parents up, the topic is about what Americans worship. The context made
it obvious which was being referred to.

------
adgar
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.

~~~
afterburner
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.

