Tag Archives: Detroit Observatory

Bentley Historical Library

Between the Stars and the Sea

Julie Halpert | Fall 2022

In the early 1900s, a determined professor of astronomy undertook the ambitious quest to build a new observatory abroad when U-M’s own observatory in Ann Arbor was threatened by a coal power plant. The result was an observatory in South Africa with U-M ties and a fascinating legacy.

Detroit Observatory

Bentley Historical Library

What Time Is It Now?

Andrew Rutledge | Fall 2021

Trains crashing. People dying. Businesses struggling. The perils of keeping incorrect time in Detroit were significant, and the city desperately needed a solution. A visionary academic, a knowledge-loving businessman, and new technology to plot the stars would converge on a small hill at U-M, changing Detroit—and the campus—forever.

Detroit Observatory