The Cellar  

Go Back   The Cellar > Images > Image of the Day

Image of the Day Images that will blow your mind - every day. [Blog] [RSS] [XML]

Reply
 
Thread Tools Rate Thread Display Modes
Old 07-15-2011, 09:07 AM   #1
glatt
 
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Arlington, VA
Posts: 27,717
July 15, 2011: Manhattanhenge

On the Manhattan solstice, the setting sun aligns with the east–west streets of the main street grid in Manhattan. Manhattanhenge is similar to Stonehenge, where the sun aligns with the stones on the solstices. It applies to streets that follow the Commissioners' Plan of 1811, which are laid out in a grid offset 29.0 degrees from true east–west.

The Manhattan solstice happens twice a year, around the true summer solstice. This year it occurred on May 31st, 21 days before the actual summer solstice, and earlier this week on July 13th, 21 days after the actual summer solstice.

It's apparently becoming more and more popular since it was popularized in 2002 by Neil deGrasse Tyson, an astrophysicist at the American Museum of Natural History. The good viewing spots on bridges become crowded as the sunset approaches, and photographers go out into the middle of the street to get good pictures.

Thanks to jasoneppink, who made his photograph available on Flickr with a creative commons license.

glatt is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-15-2011, 11:12 AM   #2
classicman
barely disguised asshole, keeper of all that is holy.
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 23,401
Ugh - nice pic, but it makes me feel claustrophobic just looking at it. I need to see TREES & grass.
__________________
"like strapping a pillow on a bull in a china shop" Bullitt
classicman is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-15-2011, 12:50 PM   #3
infinite monkey
Person who doesn't update the user title
 
Join Date: Mar 2011
Posts: 13,002
That is really cool, glatt! Imma move to Manhattan just for the 'henge.
infinite monkey is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-15-2011, 06:35 PM   #4
GunMaster357
Professor
 
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Brest (FRANCE)
Posts: 1,837
Quote:
Originally Posted by infinite monkey View Post
That is really cool, glatt! Imma move to Manhattan just for the 'henge.
Be careful! You may become hinged.
__________________
"War is God's way of teaching Americans geography." - Ambrose Bierce
GunMaster357 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-16-2011, 12:06 AM   #5
CaliforniaMama
I wonder . . .
 
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: The Left Coast, a pretty good place to be.
Posts: 1,278
I never would have imagined a City city planner would plan for something like this. Especially in the late 1800's.

On second thought, I wonder why this wasn't ritualized and passed on down through the years.
__________________
Take time for silence. You never know what you might hear.
CaliforniaMama is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-16-2011, 10:29 AM   #6
Clodfobble
UNDER CONDITIONAL MITIGATION
 
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 20,012
Quote:
The Manhattan solstice happens twice a year, around the true summer solstice. This year it occurred on May 31st, 21 days before the actual summer solstice, and earlier this week on July 13th, 21 days after the actual summer solstice.
Two thousand years from now, when they unearth the ruins of this ancient city of the Americans, they will note that we were too crude to actually get the solstice quite right--not like that advanced culture that created Stonehenge.
Clodfobble is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-16-2011, 12:05 PM   #7
Pete Zicato
Turns out my CRS is a symptom of TMB.
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Chicago suburbs
Posts: 2,916
Quote:
Originally Posted by Clodfobble View Post
Two thousand years from now, when they unearth the ruins of this ancient city of the Americans, they will note that we were too crude to actually get the solstice quite right--not like that advanced culture that created Stonehenge.
__________________


Talk nerdy to me.
Pete Zicato is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-16-2011, 04:57 PM   #8
Gravdigr
The Un-Tuckian
 
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: South Central...KY that is
Posts: 39,517
Quote:
Originally Posted by infinite monkey View Post
That is really cool, glatt! Imma move to Manhattan just for the 'henge.
I might move to Manhattan for the minge, but, not the henge, unless I become un-hinged...
__________________


These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA, EPA, FBI, DEA, CDC, or FDIC. These statements are not intended to diagnose, cause, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. If you feel you have been harmed/offended by, or, disagree with any of the above statements or images, please feel free to fuck right off.
Gravdigr is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-18-2011, 06:38 PM   #9
lupin..the..3rd
Belt Conveyor
 
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Meijersville
Posts: 68
Quote:
Originally Posted by classicman View Post
Ugh - nice pic, but it makes me feel claustrophobic just looking at it. I need to see TREES & grass.
Skip downtown then, you want something in mid-town with a view of Central Park.
lupin..the..3rd is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-19-2011, 06:48 PM   #10
Wombat
(marsupial with backward-facing pouch)
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Canberra
Posts: 251
Quote:
Originally Posted by CaliforniaMama View Post
I never would have imagined a City city planner would plan for something like this. Especially in the late 1800's.
In England there is a railway tunnel two miles long, completed in 1841, and on the engineer's birthday the rising sun shines directly through the tunnel's entire length. It's the Box Hill Tunnel and the engineer was Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
__________________
If you don't do it properly, you'll get to the pub sooner.
Wombat is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-19-2011, 09:35 PM   #11
classicman
barely disguised asshole, keeper of all that is holy.
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 23,401
really? Thats most interesting. Pics or....
__________________
"like strapping a pillow on a bull in a china shop" Bullitt
classicman is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-19-2011, 09:47 PM   #12
monster
I hear them call the tide
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Perpetual Chaos
Posts: 30,852
Wikipedia says

Quote:
Brunel's birthdayThere is a story which states that Brunel deliberately aligned the tunnel such that the rising sun is visible through it on 9 April each year, his birthday. Opinions vary widely as to whether this is true. Angus Buchanan (2002, p. 269) writes:

The alignment of the Box Tunnel has been the subject of serious discussion in the New Civil Engineer and elsewhere. I am grateful to my friend James Richard for making calculations which convinced me that the alignment on 9 April would permit the sun to be visible through the tunnel soon after dawn on a fine day.
On the other hand, it has been asserted that it is impossible to guarantee the effect on a particular calendar day, because the angle at which the sun rises on a given date varies slightly with the cycle of leap years.[2] However, the sun subtends an angle of about half a degree, which is more than the year to year variation, and more than the field of view through the tunnel, so it quite possibly seems to fill the tunnel every year. It is also asserted that Brunel failed to account for atmospheric refraction and the effect is visible a few days too early.[3]

Buchanan (ibid., p. 226) concludes:

...I have found no documentary evidence for the often-repeated story that Brunel aligned the Box Tunnel so that the rising sun shone through it on his birthday, even though careful examination shows that it could indeed do so, and it is certainly a good story.
It is tempting to think that with a suitable vantage point, the effect (if not Brunel's intentions) can easily be checked on 9 April. However, the appropriate point is in the middle of a high-speed railway line and is thus potentially very dangerous. Photographs of the effect have reportedly been taken with appropriate assistance from railway officials
__________________
The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity Amelia Earhart
monster is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-20-2011, 10:30 AM   #13
classicman
barely disguised asshole, keeper of all that is holy.
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 23,401
Already went there... hence the "Pics or ...." comment.
I didn't see any images when I searched.
__________________
"like strapping a pillow on a bull in a china shop" Bullitt
classicman is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-20-2011, 11:35 AM   #14
wolf
lobber of scimitars
 
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Phila Burbs
Posts: 20,774
shush! It's a Masonic secret.
__________________
wolf eht htiw og

"Conspiracies are the norm, not the exception." --G. Edward Griffin The Creature from Jekyll Island

High Priestess of the Church of the Whale Penis
wolf is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools
Display Modes Rate This Thread
Rate This Thread:

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump

All times are GMT -5. The time now is 07:56 PM.


Powered by: vBulletin Version 3.8.1
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.