Dramatic images showed “Manhattanhenge” at its best in New York where a striking setting sun could be seen gradually going down between the skyscrapers.
Manhattanhenge is now a fixture on the New York calendar where people take in the symmetry where a reddy sun can be seen between buildings on a clear evening.
The name was coined by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson when writing an article in the Natural History magazine in 1997.
Mr Tyson, the director of the Hayden Planetarium at New York’s American Museum of Natural History said he was inspired by a visit to Stonehenge as a child.
With the astrophysicist aware of scientists suggesting that Stonehenge could have been an ancient astronomical observatory he compared the way the sun hit the stones on the solstice with the way it happens in Manhattan against the skyscrapers.
"Beyond the grid you need a clear view to the horizon, as Manhattan has across the Hudson River to New Jersey," wrote Mr Tyson.
"And tall buildings that line the streets create a vertical channel to frame the setting sun."
He added: "So Manhattanhenge may just be a unique urban phenomenon in the world, if not the universe."
Clearly, if an ancient civilisation did deliberately put the stones in place to channel the sun, then the architects in Manhattan never did but the effect works nonetheless.
Manhattanhenge can be seen normally during two days in May and then again over a couple of days in July each year.
For anyone keen to see Manhattanhenge, it pays to get there early on a clear evening as it is likely to be packed full of people on the best locations which are the 57th, 42nd, 34th, 23rd and 14th streets.
Other good spots are the Tudor City Overpass and Hunter’s Point South Park in Long Island City, Queens.
Many people took to social media to show their photos.
One person wrote: “To immortalise Manhattanhenge, the moment when the sun is in between the New York skyscrapers is what thousands of people tried to do today and to get the photograph they didn’t care about standing in the middle of the traffic in the busy roads.”
Another similarly said: “Full sunset on July 11, crowds gathered on streets to see the sunset aligned perfectly along #NYC east-west street grid. Happens four days of the year. Awesome.”
One person tweeted: "Great photos, wise to choose 5th Ave where turns are illegal. Saw influencers literally arguing with drivers who had right of way at 2nd Ave last month during Manhattanhenge.
And another tweeted: “Saw Manhattanhenge today, it was pretty neat.”
