There was a very interesting coicidence during the Fall 2011 semester.  We were covering some of this same material in class on Friday Sep. 23.  There were a few parents in class because it was Parent's Weekend.  I showed these same pictures on that afternoon.  One of the parents came up to the front after class and mentioned having seeing the sun right at the end of 77th St. in New York City around this time of year.  That got me thinking that a picture of sunset at the end of one of the long streets with all the tall buildings might be spectacular.

When I started looking however I found that the major streets in Manhattan aren't oriented EW and NS.  You can see this on a Google map of Manhattan.  77th St. is oriented in more of a NW-SE direction.   So the sun doesn't shine straight down 77th St. at sunrise and sunset on the equinoxes.  I was pretty disappointed but then I stumbled on the this Manhattanhenge map which shows the direction of sunset (the left, west, side of the map) and sunrise (the right, east, side of the map) at various times of the year. 

If you remember that as you move past the Spring Equinox toward summer sunrise move north of east and sunset is north of west.  On May 31 the sun has moved far enough north that it does set right at the west end of 77th St.  Sunset continues to move north up until the summer solstice on June 21.  Then the sunset starts to move back south.  You can again see the sunset at the west end of 77th St. on July 12 and 13.  An article with several Manhattanhenge photographs from the May 31 event appeared in a story on the Business Insider webpage.  That would certainly make a worthwhile field trip in Atmo 170A1 if the semester went that long.  The "henge" part of the name comes from Stonehenge where the rising and setting sun aligns with stones on the solstices.

You can also see the sunrise at the east end of 77th St.  But sunrise has to be in the southeast.  This takes place on Dec. 5 and Jan. 8, just before and just after the winter solstice.