"Manhattanhenge," the event in which the sun sets in line with New York's lateral street grid, will take place for the last time this year on Monday night.
NJ.com reported that the phenomenon was named and made famous by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, host of the "Cosmos" television reboot.
The phraseology "Manhattanhenge" is a reference to the world-famous landmark Stonehenge, which Tyson studied as a young student.
"What will future civilizations think of Manhattan Island when they dig it up and find a carefully laid out network of streets and avenues? Surely the grid would be presumed to have astronomical significance, just as we have found for the pre-historic circle of large vertical rocks known as Stonehenge, in the Salisbury Plain of England,"
he wrote for the American Museum of Natural History years ago.
"For Stonehenge, the special day is the summer solstice, when the Sun rises in perfect alignment with several of the stones, signaling the change of season. For Manhattan . . . that special day comes twice a year, when the setting Sun aligns precisely with the Manhattan street grid, creating a radiant glow of light across Manhattan's brick and steel canyons, simultaneously illuminating both the north and south sides of every cross street of the borough's grid."
Tyson recommends that spectators seeking to view the phenomenon stand on the sidewalks of major streets like 14th, 23rd, 34th, 42nd, and 57th — preferably on the East side of the island.