11 July 2006

Observing Location	Park Ave & 34 St, New York, NY
Observational Period	2000-2030 EDT
Atmospheric Conditions	It was hot, humid, and very hazy. Transparency Poor Seeing
Instruments	Minolta X-700 35mm camera with 35-70mm zoom lens - Charlie Fujinon 10x58 binocular u Peter Canon Digital Elph camera - Peter
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway Peter Tagatac Kin Lee

Target	Manhattan Henge
Constellation	Gem
Category	Alignment
Time	20060711.2015 EDT
Comments	Somewhere on the Web I found a listing from Neil deGrasse Tyson that tonight was the second time during the year when the sun would set aligned with the Manhattan street grid. NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day sight says it is tomorrow night. Two other photographers were there hoping to photograph it but no one was certain of the date. Possible dates ranged from the 11th through the 12th. It seems that even Tyson can’t make up his mind as he has provided both 11Jul and 12Jul to different audiences at different times. AMNH Hayden Planetarium article with 11July date and also dates for sunrise events on 10Dec and 2Jan. NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day article with 12July date The only thing that was certain was that it was not seen last night. The clouds were very thick and we didn't even see the sun. Peter looked up the azimuth of setting for tonight and tomorrow night and found them to be one degree different and estimated that the street at the western end of Manhattan is less than two degrees wide. So a day off from the actual date and the sun might set behind the buildings on either the north or south side of the street. Weather permitting we will give it another try tomorrow night.