Hengefinder Maps Sun and Moon Street Alignments Worldwide With 4 Sky Events

1 articles · Updated · Boing Boing · May 26

Hengefinder lets users enter a time and place to pinpoint when the sun or moon will align with streets or appear perched on buildings, extending the “henge” phenomenon beyond a few famous cities.
4 event types—sunrise, sunset, moonrise and moonset—are generated from astronomical calculations combined with road-network data, with results available worldwide through iPhone, Android and the web.
Victoria Ritvo based the app on open-source code posted to GitHub, saying the hardest parts included curved roads, non-Cartesian latitude and longitude, and even defining what counts as “sunset.”
The project broadens a term popularized by events like Manhattanhenge, while noting “henge” originally referred to circular earthworks—strictly a definition that does not even fit Stonehenge.

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