Friday marked the first day of spring, and along with it came the possibility of a rare Chicago phenomenon that occurs twice a year. <\/p>\n
“Chicagohenge” occurs when the sun sets directly between downtown high rises, lines up perfectly with the city’s grid and becomes visible down east-west streets. <\/p>\n
It was a moment so many waited months for – only to be disappointed.<\/p>\n
Still \u2013 the crowds that came out didn\u2019t walk away completely empty-handed.<\/p>\n
As the clock ticked, the crowds turned out, many decided the Loop was the perfect place to watch.<\/p>\n
“The train there, the theater, people bustling,” viewer Ken McKeon said. “It\u2019s breathtaking. It just hits you right here, ya know.”<\/p>\n
Sarah Palmer from Idaho stopped by while on a work trip.<\/p>\n
“I looked at a bunch of photos online,” Palmer said. “The ones I liked the best, I found out what streets they were on.\u201d<\/p>\n
After seven years of catching “Chicagohenge,” one avid watcher means business.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have apps that track the sun,” Cindy McKeon said.<\/p>\n
By 7:02 p.m., cameras and cell phones were pointed down the canyon of buildings.<\/p>\n
The only problem was – the sun\u2019s orange hue was nowhere to be found.<\/p>\n
“Of course, it\u2019s nice to see the sun at sunset, but I think the symbology is there,” Cindy McKeon said.<\/p>\n
The group of strangers became friends for a few minutes.<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s never a waste when you\u2019re out and about in Chicago,” Ken McKeon said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a little disappointing, but we\u2019ll be back here,” another viewer stated.<\/p>\n
Chicagoans might not be out of luck entirely this time around.<\/p>\n
NBC 5 Storm Team Meteorologist Kevin Jeanes explained there’s a better change of catching “Chicagohenge” at sunset on Saturday night, when clearer skies are likely. <\/p>\n
And that likely won’t be the only shot.<\/p>\n
Monday at sunset could be another good viewing opportunity, Jeanes said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Friday marked the first day of spring, and along with it came the possibility of a rare Chicago…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":536501,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[240569,79,193],"class_list":["post-536500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-chicagohenge","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=536500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/536501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=536500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=536500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=536500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}