New York Sees 'Manhattanhenge' Sunset

It's a rare sight in new York City and it happened Wednesday night The sun sets perfectly aligned with the street grid of manhattan on an evening when clouds did not block the view It's called Manhattanhenge Photographers run into the middle of the street to try and capture the spectacular sight Passersby join in out of curiosity Drivers stop their cars to take a shot Police were afraid someone would be hit by a car guys get out of the street now So they tried to move the photographers back to the sidewalk Others stake out a spot hours in advance in hopes of getting that perfect shot inspiration is a word that means breath from above from god whoever you worship your higher power and I'm inspired to do this This is my inspiration there are often great sunsets over Manhattan like this one seen from Times Square earlier this summer This is actually two pieces of video shot one minute apart and laid over each other so that both the sun and the street are exposed properly in the camera It's close to how the human eye sees the sunset . The term Manhattanhenge was coined by astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson He got it by combining the words "Manhattan" and "Stonehenge ." I liked Manhattanhenge because it's the juxtaposition of human cosmic curiosity with an urban setting and how often do you get that Never He grew up in New york City and became fascinated with how day turns to night in so many different incredible ways Tyson began to recognize how the sun sets on the Manhattan grid in late May and the middle of july . Imagine future anthropologists thinking about our New York City culture and they'd say oh they must have set up this grid to align with the sun because everyone worships the sun of course So what special day is on their calendar Oh memorial Day and baseball So this culture was about war and baseball and I thought hey that's not all that far off . here is a look at Wednesday's Manhattanhenge sunset speeded up six thousand times Ted Shaffrey associated Press New york