Sun

How to Plan a Sunrise or Sunset Alignment: Manhattanhenge, Arches and Any Landmark

By Still DarkPublished Sep 12, 2026Updated Sep 12, 202613 min read

For Manhattanhenge 2026 the full solar disc sat on the city's grid on May 29 and July 11, and the sunrise version comes on December 5 and January 8. Twice a year the setting Sun lines up with Manhattan's cross streets and lights them from end to end. The builders of Stonehenge, Newgrange and Abu Simbel set up the same kind of alignment thousands of years earlier. It can happen anywhere. The Sun's rising and setting point moves along the horizon through the year, so every street, tower and arch has its own two dates when the Sun is exactly in line with it. This guide shows you how to find those dates for any landmark you choose. For the long-lens distance arithmetic, which is the same for the Sun and the Moon, see the huge-Moon guide.

Why the sunrise and sunset point moves along the horizon

Earth's axis is tilted 23.44°, so the Sun's declination runs from +23.44° in June to −23.44° in December, and the point where it crosses your horizon moves with it. Ignoring refraction, the rising azimuth A measured from north satisfies cos A = sin δ ÷ cos φ, with δ the declination and φ your latitude. At the equinoxes δ = 0, so A = 90°, which is due east everywhere on Earth. At the solstices the swing depends on latitude and grows fast toward the poles.

Computed for the Sun's centre on a flat horizon with no refraction. Refraction lifts the Sun about half a degree at the horizon, which at mid latitudes pushes the apparent rise and set points about 0.5° further from due east and west. So at 40° N you see the Sun set at about 302° in late June and 240° in late December, the figures the twilight guide uses for Philadelphia.

So any landmark inside the swing lines up with the Sun on two dates a year, one on each side of the nearest solstice. A street facing 270° gets the equinox Sun in March and September, and one facing 300° gets it in late May and mid July. A landmark at the end of the swing gets it once, and the Sun stays there for a week or two.

Manhattanhenge 2026, Stonehenge and the other famous alignments

Manhattanhenge's dates fall on either side of the June solstice, Torontohenge's the December one, and Chicagohenge sits on the equinoxes because its grid is true. The Utah arches are lighting effects rather than azimuth alignments, which is why they work on any clear day.

How to plan a sun alignment for any landmark

1. Choose the landmark and the effect. It could be the Sun on the horizon at the end of a street, the disc rising behind a tower, a sun star from the edge of an arch, or a lighthouse silhouetted against the disc. Each needs a different Sun altitude (0° for the street, 1–3° for a tower), and the altitude affects the date as much as the azimuth does.
2. Measure the azimuth and altitude of the landmark from your spot. Draw the line on a map and read the true bearing. A tower top 100 ft above eye level at 3,300 ft subtends 1.7° (height ÷ distance × 57.3). For a long-lens shot, use the distance table in the huge-Moon guide as it is. The Sun covers about 46 ft of subject per mile.
3. Find the dates when the Sun passes that azimuth at that altitude. The Sun doesn't climb straight up from where it rises, except at the equator. At 40° N its path leaves the horizon at about 50°, so by the time it has climbed 1.7° it has drifted about 1.4° to the right (south) of the rising point. At 60° N the drift is nearly twice the climb. So a tower alignment needs a different date from a horizon alignment on the same bearing, and the date sets the time, which is about nine minutes after sunrise for 1.7° at 40° N. Set the date and time, read the azimuth, and adjust the date until it matches. This step takes patience, and the shot depends on getting it right.
4. Shoot both dates and a day either side. Near the equinoxes the rising point moves about 0.4° per day at the equator, 0.5° at 40° N and 0.8° at 60° N. That's a Sun-width or more, so being one day off is visible. Near the solstices it hardly moves for two weeks.
5. Size the Sun and pick the lens. The disc is 0.53° across, almost the same size as the Moon, so its image is focal length ÷ 109: 3.7 mm at 400 mm, 5.5 mm at 600 mm on a 36 mm-wide frame. A 100 ft tower at 3,300 ft is three Suns tall. At 2 miles it's one. To change that ratio, change the distance, not the lens.

Refraction, horizons and hills

Refraction. A Sun seen on the horizon is really about 34′ below it. The USNO adds the disc's 16′ semidiameter and defines sunrise as the centre 50′ down. The Sun rises a few minutes early, sets a few minutes late, looks flattened, and its azimuth is shifted about half a degree outward at mid latitudes. Planning tools include this. If you calculate by hand, you have to add it.

A raised horizon. Only a sea horizon is a true 0°. A skyline, ridge or tree line is a horizon of 1°, 3° or 10°, which the Sun reaches later and further along its diagonal. Behind a 3° ridge at 40° N the sunset azimuth differs by 2–3° from the table and the time by a quarter of an hour.

Sun stars and silhouettes

A sun star comes from a small aperture and a partly hidden Sun. Stop down to f/16 or f/22 (the number of spikes is the number of aperture blades, or twice that for an odd count) and wait for the moment the Sun's edge just clears the arch, the building corner or the ridge. A sliver gives sharp spikes and a whole disc gives a blob. You only have a few seconds.

A silhouette needs the opposite, which is the whole disc, low and red, with the subject small enough to fit inside it. That comes down to distance and focal length, the same as for the Moon. The Sun also has to be low enough for the atmosphere to dim it.

Camera settings for the setting Sun, and safety

At noon the Sun is about magnitude −26.7. On the horizon its light crosses roughly forty times as much air and it falls to somewhere near −15.8. That's well over ten stops, though it varies a lot with haze, and it's why you can photograph a sunset Sun without a filter at all. For the disc on the horizon, once it's visibly orange, use ISO 100, f/8–11, 1/1000–1/4000 s and bracket ±2–3 stops, because the brightness changes by the minute. Expose for the Sun and let the landmark go black. If you want foreground detail, shoot a longer frame and blend. Keep the shutter fast, because the Sun crosses its own width every two minutes.

Don't take chances with your eyes. A low, deep-red Sun is safe to glance at with the naked eye. It is not safe to study through a telephoto, which concentrates the disc onto your retina, and the moment the haze thins or the Sun climbs a degree the light is far stronger. Compose on live view or an electronic viewfinder, never an optical one, and never through a long lens at a Sun that is still white or yellow. Don't leave a telephoto pointed at the Sun between frames either, because the focused image can damage the shutter. For a higher Sun you need a front-mounted solar filter.

Plan B: turn round, or wait for the Moon

If the sunset is dull, turn around. Opposite the sunset the pink Belt of Venus and Earth's blue-grey shadow rise over the eastern horizon for twenty minutes or so (see the twilight guide). If the weather fails on both dates, you can use the same spot for the Moon. The full Moon rises near your landmark's azimuth on some other date, and a thin crescent follows the Sun into the same western gap at dusk a few days after new. The huge-Moon guide covers how to find the dates, and the Moon gives you another chance every month.

Timeline checklist

• A month out: measure azimuth and altitude from two or three candidate spots, find the two dates for each, and note the minute the Sun reaches the right altitude.
• A week out: watch the forecast for both dates. Pick the clearest horizon, not the clearest sky.
• The evening before: scout the spot at the same time of day. Check the line of sight, footing and parking, and take a test frame at the planned focal length.
• The day: arrive 45 minutes early. Set up, focus on the landmark, switch to live view, dial in the bracket, and start shooting a couple of minutes before the computed time.

Common mistakes

• Planning for the flat horizon when the landmark itself is the horizon. The Sun reaches a tower top later and further along its path.
• Only one date. Every alignment away from the solstice azimuth has a twin on the other side of the solstice.
• Trusting a magnetic compass. Azimuths here are true, so correct for local magnetic declination, or use the map.
• An optical viewfinder on a telephoto. Live view only, and only once the disc has reddened.
• Arriving at sunset. Have the composition ready before the disc appears.

FAQ

Sources and further reading

• American Museum of Natural History — Manhattanhenge 2026: When, Where & How to See It (the 2026 dates and times; viewing streets); Wikipedia — Manhattanhenge (the 29° grid rotation, the December/January sunrise dates, Chicagohenge, Torontohenge).
• Adler Planetarium — Understanding Chicagohenge (2026 dates and why a true east–west grid aligns at the equinoxes).
• U.S. Naval Observatory — Rise, Set, and Twilight Definitions (34′ refraction, 16′ semidiameter, 50′ depression at sunrise).
• Asterism.org — Atmospheric Extinction and Refraction (the Sun's magnitude at noon versus the horizon, airmass ~40 at the horizon).
• English Heritage — Solstice at Stonehenge; Newgrange.com — Winter Solstice at Newgrange (Heel Stone sunrise; the December 19–23 beam lasting about 17 minutes).
• NASA — Eclipse and Solar Viewing Safety (never view the Sun through a lens without a front-mounted solar filter).