Hengefinder: Finding When the Sun Aligns with Your Street

(victoriaritvo.com)

42 points | by evakhoury a day ago ago

13 comments

  • normie3000 3 minutes ago

    I lived a long time in a city near the equator with a prominent east-west street. Commuting west to east in the morning and east to west in the evening meant frequent hengings. The roads don't feel particularly safe when you can't see anything. The town planners might have considered this.

    • normie3000 2 minutes ago

      Additionally I have visited Stonehenge and it's sterilised and disappointing being unable to walk amongst the stones. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

  • pierrec 18 minutes ago

    Interesting, I've planned similar shots before and used different tools that serve a similar purpose. The Photographer’s Ephemeris has neat visualizations: https://photoephemeris.com/

    NASA's Horizons ephemeris is also pretty good at preparing data for this purpose. I've used it with a little script to check when the sun/moon will be in a given box. This hengefinder looks neat and really streamline for its purpose though.

  • lefra an hour ago

    It would be nice to be able to access the website on a smartphone (even if the experience is suboptimal), instead of denying access.

    • HPsquared an hour ago

      Smartphones have the huge advantage of direction sensors (3D magnetometer and gyro). I remember using apps like Google sky map (or something like that) way back in 2011 to look at satellites and planets.

  • thisisauserid 25 minutes ago

    Manhattanhenge is cool but people standing in the middle of street for it is pretty nuts.

    • idbnstra 21 minutes ago

      it’s nuts that more streets in manhattan aren’t pedestrianized

  • 4ndrewl an hour ago

    Stonehenge of course, famously not a henge.

  • donalhunt an hour ago

    Mobile app not available in your country. :(

    • metalman an hour ago

      then use a stick™

      hint, watch the sticks shadow

      other hint, can use almost anything that casts a shadow, as a stick substitute.

      * even more hints availible with stick™ pro

      • sonofhans 38 minutes ago

        I’d like to subscribe to stick™ pro! I tried a piece of string and it waved around in the wind and didn’t work, so I think I may need a paid service for this.

  • fuzzfactor an hour ago

    It would be good to also have the option for alignment with sunrises in addition to sunsets.

    For instance in Houston the sunrise aligns with Texas Avenue around the June solstice.

    Consequently, there are no sunset alignments for the downtown skyscrapers.