manhattanhenge

Toronto photographers, mark this date & time: October 25th, 2009 @ 4:18pm. 6:18 pm

This is the date and time, according to a piece of software called The Photographer’s Ephemeris, that the sun will be setting down the majority of East-West streets here in Toronto. Here is a screencap of the sunset along Bloor:

This phenomenon is called “Manhattanhenge” in New York and should occur (according to my quick calculations) two times a year and isn’t limited to New York or Toronto—any city with streets arranged in a grid will have two days a year where the sun sets down the street. I suspect that you’ve really got +1/-1 days to capture the phenomena.

Here are Toronto’s other upcoming ‘henge date:

February 15th, 2010 @ 5:47pm

This also works for sunrise, but I suspect that it’s a less popular option. But for those who are interested:

Sunday Aug 23rd, 2009 @ 6:31am

Sunday April 18th, 2010 @ 6:29am

To figure this out for where you live, download The Photographer’s Ephemeris (an Adobe Air app) and move the map to your location. Play around with the dates until the orange line lines up with the street grid. Easy-peasy!

As an added bonus, here’s more on Manhattanhenge.

2010-11 Dates

Sunset

Tuesday, October 26th @ 18:16
Tuesday, February 15th @ 17:47

Sunrise

Wednesday, August 25th @ 6:33
Sunday, April 17th @ 6:32