Neil deGrasse Tyson

The astrophysicist/Carl Sagan of our time, writes about the phenomenon of "Manhattanhenge", which we are in the midst of celebrating right now in New York.

For Manhattan, a place where evening matters more than morning, that special day comes twice a year. For 2011 they fall on May 30th, and July 12th, when the setting Sun aligns precisely with the Manhattan street grid, creating a radiant glow of light across Manhattan's brick and steel canyons, simultaneously illuminating both the north and south sides of every cross street of the borough's grid. A rare and beautiful sight. These two days happen to correspond with Memorial Day and Baseball's All Star break. Future anthropologists might conclude that, via the Sun, the people who called themselves Americans worshiped War and Baseball.

If you're feeling particularly susceptible to the marriage of urban and natural beauty, be sure to do a Google image search of Manhattanhenge.