Photography: Manhattanhenge from Gantry Plaza State Park 7/13/23

Manhattanhenge, allegedly coined by astrophysicist Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson, is a biannual event during which the setting sun or the rising sun is aligned with the east-west streets of the Manhattan street grid — especially 14th, 23rd, 34th, 42nd and 57th Streets. It helps that the street grid is orientated about 29º clockwise from true east-west.

The alignment occurs on dates around both the summer solstice and winter solstice: The sunset alignments occur around May 28 and July 13. The sunrise alignments occur around December 5 and January 8. (You can also sometimes partially see Manhattanhenge for a day or two before the actual event.)

It’s a gorgeous and trippy thing to experience with your own eyes — and of course, since it’s been popularized over the past handful of years, thousands of people run to Manhattan and elsewhere to try to capture it with their phones or cameras. I was one of those people — yet again.

This year’s summer solstice sunset alignment took place on July 12 and July 13. July 12 was an especially hazy day, and by the time I was on 23rd Street, near Madison Square Park, the sun was slightly southwest of where I was standing at around 5:30pm.

The following day, there was a last minute stop in Long Island City’s Gantry Plaza State Park, where you can usually get a fantastic view of Manhattanhenge from the East River side of Manhattan. There was still a fair amount of haze but you can kind of see the effect of some of the buildings. I just wound up staying a bit past sunset for some gorgeous photos of midtown Manhattan.