Chicagohenge Brings Beautiful Sunset On First Day Of Fall

CHICAGO (CBS) -- It was a simply gorgeous scene downtown Monday night – as the first day of fall also meant the evening of the phenomenon affectionately called Chicagohenge.

Every year around the spring and fall equinoxes, sun lines up for a perfect photo between the city's buildings along the east-west grid streets at sunrise and sunset.

The photographable trend started in New York with Manhattanhenge – in which the sunset likewise aligns with the east-west street grid in Manhattan. But as Neil deGrasse Tyson explains in an article on the Hayden Planetarium website, the street grid in Manhattan is rotated 30 degrees east from geographic noon. Thus, Manhattanhenge occurs in May and July.

But since Chicago's east-west streets run true east-west, and thus, Chicagohenge coincides with the spring and fall equinoxes.