Now, Kirshner says that the celestial prowess in "one of the top few astronomy departments in the country" is threatened because graduate students and other members of the departments cannot book enough time on major research telescopes for their projects.

Senior Lecturer on Astronomy David Latham says that the Magellan telescope will be "a shot in the arm for the Astronomy Department."

"If it has the right instrument on it, then I'll use it," he says. "It will be very useful for many people in the department."

Harvard does have a stake in telescopes operated by the Smithsonian Institution, but Kirshner and Latham say that these telescopes do not provide enough opportunity for research, in quantity or in quality.

With the Magellan observatory, Harvard astronomers would have much higher priority than they can get now with other similar instruments.

Harvard's pursuit of a South American observatory began in 1986 when the Astonomy Department recognized the construction of a Harvard-affiliated telescope in South America as its highest priority.

In 1990 members of the department began fundraising for a telescope in partnership with Cambridge University, but then the British school dropped out and the alliance with Carnegie was formed instead.

The Yellow Brick Road

Money for the new telescope has not come easily. The University does not fund large research projects like this one directly, according to Joe Wrinn, the director of the Harvard News Office.

Kirshner says the responsibility for fundraising for projects like these often lie with the faculty members.

"The dean doesn't sit on a pool of money and aim the spigot in [whichever] direction asks for it," Kirshner says. "A lot of these things happen because faculty members go out and get the money."

Kirshner has been chiefly responsible for raising $9 million over the past five years, or about 70 percent of the total $13.7 million required. The observatory will cost $67 million overall.

His passport, stamped dozens of times, gives an idea of the number of airline flights and amount of legwork that have gone into the project.

"It's not as easy as you think; I'm asking for a lot of money," he jokes.

But Kirshner says that meeting alumni "who care about the place" makes all the work rewarding.