In spring and summer every year, New Yorkers are treated to the celestial eye candy known as Manhattanhenge. The setting sun aligns with Manhattan’s city grid, creating a solar display perfectly framed by concrete buildings and steel skyscrapers. It bathes the city in its warm glow.

“It’s the best sunset picture of the year that you will have in this beautiful city,” said Jackie Faherty, an astrophysicist at the American Museum of Natural History. “Sometimes they call it the Instagram holiday.”

The name is a nod to Stonehenge, the prehistoric monument in England that is thought to have been erected by ancient people as a way to honor the sun. Every summer solstice, the sunrise perfectly illuminates the stone slabs.

Manhattanhenge is a two-day event that happens twice a year, first in May and then in July. This year both days in May (May 29 and 30) were a bust thanks to cloudy skies. The remaining dates and times are as follows:

• July 12, at 8:20 p.m. E.D.T.

• July 13, at 8:21 p.m. E.D.T.

Forecasts suggest that scattered thunderstorms may dampen Manhattanhenge on Wednesday and Thursday.



Below are answers to common questions about Manhattanhenge.