MANHATTANHENGE

MANHATTANHENGE 

Because the axes of New York City

 rotate thirty degrees from North

its  Easts and Wests are distorted,

or so CNN has reported.

Of course , one could take the view 

that East and West have always been askew--

 and their views of each other rarely "true".

Still, you may be glad to hear

that on four days each year

the sun shines directly through the crowded city's  steel 

and concrete canyons

though it gives  nothing like the feel

of sunlit  verdant trees like banyans.

Nor any more are  people prepared for sacrifice 

by Druid Priests on such days.

While there is certainly  no shortage of  lethal vice,

 it's now done in other ways.

The crowds passing by must look snappier

wearing clothes  no longer made of skins, hoofs and claws

as they wore  millennia ago,

yet are they really  made any happier

by   our Governments of Laws--

and if so, how would we know?

HZL

5/31/15

Stonehenge: Facts & Theories About Mysterious Monument
www.livescience.com/22427-stonehenge-facts.html



Oct 3, 2014 - Stonehenge, a huge prehistoric monument, was built 5000 years ago in England. Its builders and its purpose remain a mystery.


New Yorkers primed for 'Manhattanhenge'

By Brandon Griggs, CNN
Updated 3:55 PM ET, Sat May 30, 2015


Rare red sunset aligns with NYC skyline 01:07
PLAY VIDEO
As deGrasse Tyson points out, the sunset point creeps northward day to day along the horizon until the first day of summer, when it heads back southward until the first day of winter. The sun rises due east and sets due west only two days per year: on the equinoxes in spring and fall.
If Manhattan's street grid was perfectly aligned along north-south lines, then Manhattanhenge would coincide with the equinoxes. But Manhattan's layout is rotated 30 degrees east from geographic north, shifting the days of alignment to late May and mid-July.
After the sun's setting point turns southward, New York will get two more days of Manhattanhenge this year, on July 12 and 13.






Story highlights
• "Manhattanhenge" is when the setting sun aligns precisely with Manhattan's east-west streets
• The occurrence is set for Friday and Saturday, then July 12 and 13
(CNN)New Yorkers are famously jaded -- they'll walk past a man in a bunny suit, juggling chainsaws -- but don't be surprised if you see throngs of them on street corners this weekend, aiming smartphone cameras toward New Jersey.
That's because Friday and Saturday are two of four days each year when the setting sun aligns precisely with Manhattan's east-west streets, framing the glowing orb between the city's steel and brick canyons.
Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of New York's Hayden Planetarium, has even coined a name for this phenomenon: Manhattanhenge, after England's Stonehenge, the prehistoric circle of rocks that aligns with the rising sun at the summer solstice.
"True, some municipalities have streets named for the sun, like Sunrise Highway on Long Island and the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles. But these roads are not perfectly straight," deGrasse Tyson writes. "And the few times a year when the sun aligns with one of their stretches of road, all you get is stalled traffic (because) solar glare temporarily blinds drivers.


"Manhattanhenge," as coined by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, occurred on May 29, 2014, in New York.
"So, Manhattanhenge may just be a unique urban phenomenon in the world, if not the universe."
In past years the occurrence has drawn crowds to New York streets with especially good viewing angles -- which deGrasse Tyson identifies as 14th, 23rd, 34th, 42nd and 57th streets. He also recommends watching from the east side of Manhattan to get the full urban-canyon effect.
Sunset in New York is scheduled for 8:19 p.m. Friday and Saturday, with mostly clear skies -- although devoted Instagrammers will want to get in position earlier. (If it's cloudy, you're out of luck.)