Starship Asterisk*

Sunset at Edmontonhenge

Explanation: On September 18, the setting Sun illuminated both sides of the steep brick and steel canyon otherwise known as Jasper Avenue in downtown Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, planet Earth. The Stonehenge-like alignment is captured from the middle of the road in this daring snapshot. In Edmonton streets are laid out on a grid almost oriented along the cardinal directions, so aligned Edmonton sunsets (and sunrises) occur along the nearly east-west streets twice a year, close to the Equinox. In fact, at today's Equinox, the Sun crosses the celestial equator at 1421 UT and on this day the Sun will rise due east and set due west, bringing approximately equal hours of day and night to denizens of planet Earth. The September Equinox marks the astronomical beginning of Fall in the north and spring in the southern hemisphere.

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The equinox

When all the cylinders in your car misfire equally/

I'll be going now.

I lived in Edmonton for a whole forgettable year, back in the mid-70s. Probably apocryphal, but I was told that the rush-hour accident rate rose noticably for a few days around the equinoxes, as about half the city drove into the rising Sun in the morning and into the setting Sun in the late afternoon. Nevertheless, I'd take that Sun anytime as opposed to the dark and icey-cold winters of that bleak (in memory) city.

Edmonton, more so than the much older cities in eastern Canada, is very new looking to my eyes, almost disturbingly so. (Its population grew from 90,000 in the 1940s to about 900,000 this year.) My wife and I used to drive downtown once in a while to soothe ourselves by going for a walk near the classic old brick buildings. There were only about 12 of them!

Rob

I cannot see 'both sides' being illuminated. I can think of hundreds of towns with E-W streets.

At least the ancient "hengers' didn't have their cart paths all headed directly east and west.

Well now, yet another astounding pic, that is not astronomical at all. Simple a sunset, that is at a point where a city has built buildings, and then someone imagines some interstellar connection to it all..

I.M. Huge wrote:Well now, yet another astounding pic, that is not astronomical at all. Simple a sunset, that is at a point where a city has built buildings, and then someone imagines some interstellar connection to it all..

Of course this is astronomical.

Luckily there is a median strip on Jasper Ave, so that Mr. Vanzella didn't have to risk being run over, being in the middle of the street!

Case wrote:Luckily there is a median strip on Jasper Ave, so that Mr. Vanzella didn't have to risk being run over, being in the middle of the street!

I'm not sure if that's a median or a suicide lane? I guess it's a little of both.

Ok, you have re-align Edmonton's streets so they actually coincide with the Equinox.... eh?

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neufer wrote:

[b][color=#0000FF][size=150]Jasper Avenue in Edmonton, ca.1907[/size][/color][/b]

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Awesome Pic....

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owlice wrote:

I.M. Huge wrote:Well now, yet another astounding pic, that is not astronomical at all. Simple a sunset, that is at a point where a city has built buildings, and then someone imagines some interstellar connection to it all..

Of course this is astronomical.

It has The Sun, it has "near" Equinox... yup... lt is Astronomical....

Just not so interesting...

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Boomer12k wrote:

owlice wrote:

I.M. Huge wrote:Well now, yet another astounding pic, that is not astronomical at all. Simple a sunset, that is at a point where a city has built buildings, and then someone imagines some interstellar connection to it all..

Of course this is astronomical.

It has The Sun, it has "near" Equinox... yup... lt is Astronomical....

Just not so interesting...

It'd be a lot more interesting to you if you lived in Edmonton or even a city which had a henge date.