Sky and Telescope - August 2015 - 35

shadow corresponds to a solar azimuth of 261° (9° south
of due west) and a time of 5:00 p.m.
The connection? In the archives of Life magazine,
a contact sheet for a roll of Kodak Plus-X ﬁ lm includes
Peace at Last (negatives #10 and #11 at 5:00 p.m.), followed by a dozen other photographs (#12-23) of revelers
on the west side of the Times Building and near the New
York movie theater, and then the famous Kiss series
(#24-27, shown on page 31). This sequence is consistent
with our result that Eisenstaedt and Jorgensen took their
Kiss photographs at 5:51 p.m.
On another roll of ﬁlm, Eisenstaedt's last VJ Day
photographs look down from high positions onto the
denser crowd packing Times Square after the 7:03 p.m.
oﬃcial announcement of the war's end. Several of these
images include the large Toﬀenetti Restaurant clock
showing times between 7:40 and 7:47 p.m. Eisenstaedt
later recalled that he turned in his ﬁ lm to the Life oﬃce
at about 8 p.m.

The widely accepted scenario placing the Kiss photographs near 2 in the afternoon doesn't stand up. We also
point out that the identities of the kissing pair became
a public controversy only after August 1980, when Life
magazine published an article about the identity of the
nurse and asked: "Now, if the sailor can recognize himself, would he please step forward?" This brought forth
dozens of candidates for the sailor and several more for
the woman in white.
It's possible that most of these claimants were present
in Times Square and that each kissed someone. Which
are in Eisenstaedt's photos? Maybe none. The actual
subjects may not have read the August 1980 issue of Life
or, indeed, even been alive in 1980.
Some mysteries are beyond the reach of astronomical
calculations, but the August 14th late-afternoon shadows
provide the key to unlocking at least some of the secrets
of the iconic VJ Day images. ✦
Don Olson and Russell Doescher teach physics and
astronomy at Texas State University. Steve Kawaler teaches
astrophysics at Iowa State University. They thank Barbara
Baker Burrows, director of photography at Life Books, for
permission to reproduce the Eisenstaedt and Shrout images
and for much expert advice. The authors also received
research assistance from Russell Burrows, Daniel Okrent,
Lawrence Verria, Lee Anne Willson, Robert Sullivan of Life
Books, Rebekah Burgess at the Life picture archives, Leica
experts Jim Lager and Jonathan Davis, the staﬀ s of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Library, the Avery Library
at Columbia University, and the Map Division at the New
York Public Library, and Margaret Vaverek of the Alkek
Library at Texas State.

Manhattanhenge

EDUARD MOLDOVEANU PHOTOGRAPHY

Who Is the Sailor?
Who Is the Woman in White?

Maps of Manhattan often show the avenues running vertically and the numbered streets running horizontally for convenience, but the Manhattan street grid is actually tilted 29°
clockwise from true north. Knowing the correct azimuths of the
streets and avenues was essential to our VJ Day shadow analysis.
The tilt of the street grid also determines the dates of the
phenomenon known as "Manhattanhenge," popularized since
2001 by Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of New York's Hayden
Planetarium. New Yorkers see the setting Sun aligned with
Manhattan's numbered streets not at the spring and fall equinoxes, but rather for a few days near May 30th and July 12th,
when the azimuth of the setting Sun is near 299° (that is, 29°
north of due west). The steel, glass, and concrete towers lining
the Manhattan streets make this sunset phenomenon especially spectacular.
COSMIC ALIGNMENT Unlike Stonehenge, Manhattan wasn't
built to align with the Sun on particular dates; it just does. On July
11, 2014, a crowd gathered at 42nd Street to witness the celestial
event popularized by Neil deGrasse Tyson.

Sk yandTelescope.com August 2015

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Sky and Telescope - August 2015

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