Facilities

• The Beck Telescope (shown to the right), a 30-inch reflector. This 1930 vintage Cassegrain has a Warner & Swasey mounting with optical elements by J.W. Fecker. It was completely refurbished and modified for its installation in 1950 by the Perkin-Elmer Corporation. The telescope tracking control system was modernized and upgraded during the summer of 1998, and the mirrors were refinished during the renovations in 2000.

• Eight Meade ETX-EC90 M-C telescopes. Used in Astronomy 120.
• Six Celestron 8-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes. Used in Astronomy 120.
• One Meade LX50 8-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope with Magellan II System. Used in Astronomy 121.
• One Meade LX50 10-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope with Magellan II System. Used in Astronomy 121.

• A 3.1 m diameter radio telescope with receivers at K, U and L bands (1.3 cm, 2 cm, 21 cm).

Observing Plaza

Delafield Planetarium

Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) Facility For a thorough summary of the first results from the LIDAR system, jointly built by students and faculty at Agnes Scott College and Georgia Tech Research Institute, click here.

The Building

The Bradley Observatory (84 17 38.98 W, 33 45 54.84 N) is an astronomical teaching and research facility located on the campus of Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia. The Observatory, named in honor of William C. and Sarah Hall Bradley, contains the 70-seat Delafield Planetarium and a 100-seat capacity lecture hall. The building also contains a library/seminar room, 3 faculty offices, a darkroom, a student computer lab, and an observing plaza for astronomical viewing. The large dome atop the Observatory houses the 30-inch Lewis H. Beck telescope which returned to its original home from Hard Labor Creek Observatory on August 6, 1997.

The Bradley Observatory was dedicated on June 3, 1950. In September 1950, a few months after its dedication, the Bradley Observatory appeared on the cover of Sky & Telescope. The Sky & Telescope article describes the Observatory and the early days of astronomy at Agnes Scott College.

The Archives

An architect's rendering by Clarence T. Jones of Chattanooga, TN shows the building as planned in the late 1940s. The caption reads: "Proposed University Center Observatory. This is to be located about one-fourth mile south of the Agnes Scott campus, on a site that is high and relatively free of city lights. It will cost about $85,000."


A newspaper article from the Atlanta Journal Constitution about the arrival of the Beck Telescope at Agnes Scott College.


Pencil sketch of the Beck Telescope by Bill Close, one of the founding members of the Atlanta Astronomy Club, made upon its arrival at the Observatory.


A 1950 etching of the Bradley Observatory, showing the western elevation. This etching was used for the President's Christmas card in that year.


The original advertisement from Popular Astronomy (October 1948, Volume LVI, Number 8) for the Beck Telescope. All the listed equipment is stored in the Observatory dome.

Department of Physics and Astronomy, Agnes Scott College
141 E. College Avenue, Decatur, GA 30030
cdepree@agnesscott.edu