🔭 Bradley Observatory

The Bradley Observatory is an astronomical observatory owned and operated by Agnes Scott College. It is located in Decatur, Georgia, 5 miles (8.0 km) east of Atlanta, Georgia, (USA). The observatory's largest telescope, the Beck Telescope, is a vintage 30 inch (750 mm) Cassegrain reflector built in 1930. The mount was built by Warner & Swasey, and the optics were built by Fecker. The telescope was originally owned and operated by an amateur astronomer, Mr. Henry Gibson. He offered the telescope for sale in Popular Astronomy magazine in 1947, seeking to upgrade his own telescope. Agnes Scott purchased it in 1947 for about $15,000 after an offer from the Soviet Union was declined for reasons related to the Cold War. For many years, the Beck telescope was the largest in the Southeast United States, only superseded when the Fernbank Observatory opened in 1972 with its 36-inch (910 mm) telescope.