Like other buildings, observatory domes can outlive their usefulness. They may not be big enough for the latest telescopes. The light from encroaching cities can make it hard for them to see the heavens. Or time may just catch up to them.

Many domes and related buildings have been torn down. Others have been converted into offices or libraries. And still others have been abandoned – left to the elements and the ravages of time.

Several of these buildings are scattered around the country – in places like Illinois and the woods of Michigan, for example. Their walls are covered with graffiti, their floors with water and trash, their spaces haunted by the ghostly memories of nights under the stars.

Perhaps the most famous abandoned observatory sits on a grassy knoll in Cleveland. It was built by the men who founded Warner and Swasey, a machine-making company. They were amateur astronomers who devoted part of their business to building telescopes – including the first big telescope at McDonald Observatory.

In 1919, they donated an observatory to Case University. They equipped it with a telescope of their own making. Bigger telescopes followed. The beautiful building was abandoned in 1982. Its telescopes had been sent elsewhere, and its staff moved into other quarters.

Today, the building is decaying and dangerous – a ghostly presence beneath the stars on Halloween night.

Script by Damond Benningfield