The Majestic 'Chicagohenge' Phenomenon Is Back, & You Can See It Tonight
By Stephen Gossett in News on Sep 25, 2017 6:33PM
It's that time of year again for the city's most stunning, Instagrammable solar phenomenon, the "Chicagohenge." And tonight will offer the best vantage of the season.
The effect is simple in description but startling to behold. The setting sun aligns near-perfectly with Chicago's grid-street layout, with the city's skyscrapers transformed into towering vertical frames for the light display.
The phenomenon hits twice a year, first in March, then again with the arrival of the autumnal equinox. We're roughly in the middle of the current window in which Chicagoans can see, snap and share documentation (#Stonehenge) of the spectacle. It's been visible since Sept. 20 and will be so until around Sept. 30, estimates Geza Gyuk, an Adler Planetarium astronomer. But this evening's sunset marks the point at which the sun is most precisely lined up with east-west corridors.
Sky-watchers "should be able to see [the setting sun] on practically any east-west street, but the ones in the Loop are of course most spectacular and most dramatic," due to the towering-architecture-as-framing-device result, Gyuk told Chicagoist.
The Chicagohenge should be visible for several minutes before and after peak time: 6:42 p.m. Yes, this heat is unbearable, but lets hope the clouds stay scattered.
Check out a few stunners that Chicagoist photographer Jessica Mlinaric caught in 2015 in the gallery above. And below is a sampling that were composed earlier this week.