{"id":293341,"date":"2026-07-11T18:52:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T18:52:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/293341\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T18:52:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T18:52:19","slug":"manhattanhenge-2026-the-best-sunset-views-in-nyc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/293341\/","title":{"rendered":"Manhattanhenge 2026: The best sunset views in NYC"},"content":{"rendered":"

Get out your phones and head down to street level, because this year\u2019s final Manhattanhenge<\/a> \u2014 the coincidental phenomenon where the sun aligns perfectly with Manhattan\u2019s rectangular street grid \u2014 is taking place this weekend, Sat. July 11 through Sun. July 12. <\/p>\n

And while the point of the naturally occuring event is that you don\u2019t have to work very hard to find the best viewing locations, not all east-west blocks are created equal. Some clouds may interrupt tonight\u2019s show, according to Accuweather, but there\u2019s no rain in the forecast around sunset (8:28pm) on either day. <\/p>\n

Here\u2019s everything you know are a few tips on the best viewing locations and happenings around town this weekend. <\/p>\n

First up, on Saturday, American Museum of Natural History is hosting a free block party from 3-10 p.m. on W. 79th Street between Amsterdam and Columbus \u2014\u00a0there will be World Cup viewing options indoors, and chess matches, double dutch-jump rope and board games in the street.<\/p>\n

The prime viewing time is expected to be around 8:20 p.m. \u2014\u00a0the Williamsburg Salsa Orchestra will play as the sun sets. The museum will also host a lecture at 7 p.m. about Manhattanhenge; you can get tickets for that event here.<\/a><\/p>\n

What is Manhattanhenge?<\/p>\n

Manhattanhenge only happens twice a year \u2014\u00a0in 2026, the first occurrence was May 28-29. The term was coined by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, referencing England\u2019s Stonehenge monument.<\/p>\n

Tyson went outside and did a measurement of the grid of Manhattan and calculated the chosen azimuth \u2014 which is a point along the horizon \u2014 and altitude where the sun would line up directly with the horizon. <\/p>\n

If you take your finger and point it down the middle of 42nd Street, a line would extend all the way out 93 million miles to the exact position that the sun is in.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While we learn that the Sun always rises in the east and sets in the west, this actually only happens twice per year on the equinoxes: the first day of spring and of autumn. On every other day, the Sun rises and sets elsewhere on the horizon, since the Earth is constantly spinning. <\/p>\n

If Manhattan\u2019s grid was aligned with the north-south line, Manhattanhenge would fall on the equinoxes. But the street grid is evidently rotated 30 degrees east from the geographic north, which shifts the days of alignment on the calendar to the late-May and mid-July dates. <\/p>\n

\"ManhattanhengeThe spectacular \u201cfull\u201d and \u201chalf sun\u201d alignment happens twice in late May (around Memorial Day) and twice in mid-July. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Manhattan has the ability to have this clear sunset view because of its rectangular grid and the clear view to the horizon, which Manhattan has across the Hudson River to New Jersey. The tall buildings create a vertical channel that frames the Sun, which creates those perfect windows.<\/p>\n

You can also view the sunset from Manhattan\u2019s main east\/west thoroughfares, where you should find a spot as far east as possible, that still has views of New Jersey across the Hudson River.\u00a0Some prime viewing locations are:<\/p>\n

14th Street<\/p>\n

23rd Street<\/p>\n

34th Street<\/p>\n

42nd Street<\/p>\n

57th Street<\/p>\n

The sunset can also be viewed from Tudor City Overpass, Manhattan and Hunter\u2019s Point South Park in Long Island City, Queens.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jackie Fahorty works in the Astrophysics Department of the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) and looks at the position of the sun and the exact coordinates of the Manhattan grid to identify a place in the sky where there would be a direct Manhattanhenge.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to the AMNH website<\/a>, Fahorty always does her altitude and azimuth calculations at 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue, a spot that enables full Manhattanhenge, when the very bottom of the sun kisses the grid right before it goes below the horizon.<\/p>\n

\"PeopleWhile summer is famous for the glowing evening sunset, you can also view a \u201cWinter Manhattanhenge\u201d where the alignment happens during the sunrise in December and January. Getty Images<\/p>\n

The second is when the midpoint of the sun kisses the grid, calling it a half sun Manhattanhenge. May 28 is the half sun and May 29 is the full sun. The second Manhattanhenge is reversed \u2014\u00a0July 11 is the full sun and 12 is the half sun.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It is a combination of the azimuth \u2014 the point along the horizon \u2014 and the altitude that analysts look at to determine where the sun exactly will be.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While most people assume Uptown Manhattan is north and Downtown Manhattan is south, Tyson explained<\/a> on the AMNH website that the borough of Manhattan is actually rotated so you can\u2019t use that as your \u201cazimuth\u201d direction.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNew Yorkers hardly look up,\u201d Tyson continued. \u201cTo the extent that we do not look up, we are losing something fundamental to what it is to be alive on planet Earth and to have the mental capability to contemplate the cosmos itself.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Get out your phones and head down to street level, because this year\u2019s final Manhattanhenge \u2014 the coincidental…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293342,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[27009,10014,3530,4619,232,75,9,56,63,65,64,15071],"class_list":["post-293341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-american-museum-of-natural-history","tag-astronomy","tag-buildings","tag-events","tag-lifestyle","tag-manhattan","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-sun"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}