Do North...

Have you ever checked at the summer/autumnal solstice to see if your farmstead, buildings, UFO landing strips, etc. were laid out exactly E-W or lined the North Star up with your grain bin layout?

You haven't? Well, then me neither. How nerdy would that be? Heh.


But if you farm in Manhattan, the day is approaching when you can observe an interesting solar alignment phenomenon.

For Manhattan, a place where evening matters more than morning, that special day comes on May 30th this year, one of only two occasions when the Sun sets in exact alignment with the Manhattan grid, fully illuminating every single cross-street for the last fifteen minutes of daylight. The other day is July 13th. Had Manhattan's grid been perfectly aligned with the geographic north-south line, then our special days would be the Spring and Autumn equinoxes, the only two days on the calendar when the Sun rises due east and sets due west.

But Manhattan is rotated 30 degrees east from geographic north, shifting the days of alignment elsewhere into the calendar. Upon studying American culture, and what is important to it, future anthropologists might credit the Manhattan alignments to cosmic signs of Memorial Day and, of course, the All-Star break. War and Baseball. [More]

You guys probably don't do druid parties either, I'm guessing.

Never mind.

[via 3Quarks]