Hengefinder: Finding When the Sun Aligns with Your Street
46 points
23 hours ago
| 7 comments
| victoriaritvo.com
| HN
lefra
2 hours ago
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It would be nice to be able to access the website on a smartphone (even if the experience is suboptimal), instead of denying access.
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HPsquared
1 hour ago
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Smartphones have the huge advantage of direction sensors (3D magnetometer and gyro). I remember using apps like Google sky map (or something like that) way back in 2011 to look at satellites and planets.
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pierrec
1 hour ago
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Interesting, I've planned similar shots before and used different tools that serve a similar purpose. The Photographer’s Ephemeris has nice visualizations: https://photoephemeris.com/

NASA's Horizons ephemeris is also pretty good at preparing data for this. I've used it with a little script to check when the sun/moon will be in a given box. This hengefinder looks neat and really streamlined for its purpose though.

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normie3000
58 minutes ago
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I lived a long time in a city near the equator with a prominent east-west street. Commuting west to east in the morning and east to west in the evening meant frequent hengings. The roads don't feel particularly safe when you can't see anything. The town planners might have considered this.
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normie3000
57 minutes ago
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Additionally I have visited Stonehenge and it's sterilised and disappointing being unable to walk amongst the stones. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
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4ndrewl
2 hours ago
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Stonehenge of course, famously not a henge.
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tdb7893
1 hour ago
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Apparently the word "henge" comes from the name Stonehenge but Stonehenge has the ditch on the wrong side of the bank to technically be a henge.

For any other curious people: https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/inspire-me/what-is...

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4ndrewl
27 minutes ago
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Ye - also the henge is the circular ditch, not the stone circle or whatever in the centre
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thisisauserid
1 hour ago
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Manhattanhenge is cool but people standing in the middle of street for it is pretty nuts.
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idbnstra
1 hour ago
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it’s nuts that more streets in manhattan aren’t pedestrianized
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donalhunt
2 hours ago
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Mobile app not available in your country. :(
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metalman
1 hour ago
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then use a stick™

hint, watch the sticks shadow

other hint, can use almost anything that casts a shadow, as a stick substitute.

* even more hints availible with stick™ pro

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sonofhans
1 hour ago
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I’d like to subscribe to stick™ pro! I tried a piece of string and it waved around in the wind and didn’t work, so I think I may need a paid service for this.
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fuzzfactor
1 hour ago
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It would be good to also have the option for alignment with sunrises in addition to sunsets.

For instance in Houston the sunrise aligns with Texas Avenue around the June solstice.

Consequently, there are no sunset alignments for the downtown skyscrapers.

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