Celestial sleuths pinpoint exact moment iconic VJ-day photo was taken

Los Angeles Times : It has long been assumed that the famous VJ-day photo of a US Navy sailor and a woman in white kissing in Times Square was taken just after 7:00pm on 14 August 1945—when the end of World War II was officially announced. Now a team of astronomers has used a distinctive shadow to determine that the iconic photo by Life magazine photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt was actually taken earlier that day. Donald Olson of Texas State University and colleagues studied hundreds of vintage photos, maps, and building blueprints to discover what cast the shadow: an L-shaped sign on the roof of the Hotel Astor. Using trigonometry and geometry, they then figured out where in the sky the Sun had to have been to cast the shadow. From that they were able to pinpoint the exact moment the photo was taken: 5:51pm. The researchers’ findings have been published in the August 2015 issue of Sky & Telescope.