Talk:Birminghenge
Coinage
I've heard people use that term (or "Birminghamhenge") before, but not commonly. Is there any documentation for it being widely recognized and also first coined by User:Mark Taylor? --Dystopos (talk) 08:48, 19 December 2023 (CST)
- I had not heard it before, and a thorough web/wiki/newspaper search turned up absolutely nothing, but I can't prove a negative, so I'm fine with leaving that out. --Mark Taylor (talk) 09:50, 19 December 2023 (CST)
- Sounds good. If you do end up popularizing it elsewhere and you're given credit by some other publication, we can put your name back up with that citation. --Dystopos (talk) 10:00, 19 December 2023 (CST)
- I remembered talking to Glenny Brock about this back in summer of 2022. She was passing along a question from her dad about Birmingham having its own version of Manhattanhenge. None of us named it in that email conversation. --11:32, 19 December 2023 (CST)
- Not sure if it's relevant to us, but apparently Neil deGrasse Tyson is the coiner of "Manhattanhenge" in 2002. --Dystopos (talk) 11:36, 19 December 2023 (CST)
- Yes, he may have indeed coined the term, although in his case as well, the only evidence seems to be the lack of counterclaims to-date. --Mark Taylor (talk) 11:52, 19 December 2023 (CST)
- Not sure if it's relevant to us, but apparently Neil deGrasse Tyson is the coiner of "Manhattanhenge" in 2002. --Dystopos (talk) 11:36, 19 December 2023 (CST)
- I remembered talking to Glenny Brock about this back in summer of 2022. She was passing along a question from her dad about Birmingham having its own version of Manhattanhenge. None of us named it in that email conversation. --11:32, 19 December 2023 (CST)
- Sounds good. If you do end up popularizing it elsewhere and you're given credit by some other publication, we can put your name back up with that citation. --Dystopos (talk) 10:00, 19 December 2023 (CST)
Winter solstice
To avoid possible confusion, in the paragraph about Stonehenge I suggest we use the terms "summer solstice" and "winter solstice", rather than "midsummer" and "midwinter", since although some loosely use the latter terms to refer to the solstices, "midwinter" technically means the cross-quarter day halfway between the winter solstice and spring equinox, when the winter is at its coldest (i.e., on Groundhog Day). The Stonehenge alignment actually occurs on the solstices. Also I believe that the exact time of the solstice (as well as the azimuth of the sunset on that day) changes from year to year, sometimes even occurring on Dec. 22, so we probably shouldn't mention those details in the article; I suggest that instead we say something more general like "usually on December 21". --Mark Taylor (talk) 13:32, 19 December 2023 (CST)
- I didn't realize "midwinter" had a technical definition that differed from the solstice. That being the case, I would say you're right. --Dystopos (talk) 15:23, 19 December 2023 (CST)
Manhattan street grid
The Manhattan street grid is indeed 29° off of east-west, but unlike Birmingham, it's in the clockwise direction, which is why Manhattanhenge occurs on summer days either side of the summer solstice, when sunset is north of due west. (If Birmingham's grid were rotated any further counterclockwise than 29°, we wouldn't have a sunset alignment at all!) So I don't think we need to mention the angle of the Manhattan grid (or Manhattan's latitude), unless we want to explain that the clockwise/counterclockwise difference is the reason why Manhattan's event is in the summer and ours is in the winter. --Mark Taylor (talk) 13:48, 19 December 2023 (CST)
- I was a bit surprised that the numbers were the same and jumped to the assumption that latitude made the difference instead of actually looking at a map. I'll reword that bit. --Dystopos (talk) 15:25, 19 December 2023 (CST)
England
Searches for "Birminghenge" and "Birminghamhenge" turned up a couple of sunset photos from Birmingham, England, but since that city isn't laid out on a grid, it probably doesn't merit much discussion. You just wander around until you find a street that lines up whenever you're there, I guess. --Dystopos (talk) 13:55, 22 December 2023 (CST)