The story of why the University built a telescope in the middle of South Africa begins with a love triangle.

Both William Hussey, a former director of the Detroit Observatory, and Robert Lamont, who lent their names to the Lamont-Hussey Observatory, were smitten with Hussey's future wife Ethel, according to History Prof. Rudi Lindner.

Although Hussey won out in the end, the two remained close friends.

Late one night in 1908, Lamont and Hussey were watching a wrestling match in Chicago when Lamont abruptly offered to fund Hussey's pipe dream to build a telescope in the Southern Hemisphere in order to map areas of the sky not visible from North America, Lindner said.

Lindner estimated that Lamont, who made his fortune selling steel to railroad companies, gave Hussey about 1 million dollars in today's dollars to finance the project.

The project stalled during World War I because the glass needed to make the lens was manufactured in Europe.

Hussey traveled widely before selecting the site near the town of Bloemfontein.

"Bloemfontein (South Africa) is like being in the center of Nebraska," Lindner said. "It's a place you don't go to for pleasure alone."

But the rural area in the middle of the country boasted perfect conditions for stargazing.

Hussey never got the chance to see his dream complete. Soon after he finalized the site in 1926, Hussey collapsed and died in London.

The mayor of Bloemfontein opened the Lamont-Hussey Observatory on May 11, 1928.

At the time, the 27-inch refracting lens - which is now stored at the University - was the fourth-largest in the United States, according to "The Making of the University of Michigan," by Howard Peckham.

A team from the University took up Hussey's work mapping double stars, which are stars that appear to be connected. Led by astronomer Richard Rossiter, astronomers catalogued roughly 7,200 double stars.

After Rossiter retired in 1959, the University increased pressure to close the observatory due to funding and a student campaign against apartheid, Lindner said.

The observatory officially closed in 1972.

Although the telescope is no longer operational, the building still stands today.

The University donated the site to a children's theater group. The observatory's dome now features paintings of animals like giraffes and zebras grazing freely.