Sky & Telescope - April 2022 - 28

ASTRONOMICAL OUTREACH by Chris De Pree & Sarah Scoles
The Past, Present,
and Future of
College Observatories
Even in an era of big science and big budgets, small facilities
still have an important role to play.
" I
s the Milky Way a Spiral Galaxy? " That was the question
posed on the cover of the September 1950 issue
of Sky & Telescope. The query underlying that article
may seem quaint today, but other cover stories that month,
like " The Amateur Astronomer as a Community Teacher, "
feel as timely as ever. Perhaps the most surprising item in
that issue, though, was an article entitled " Astronomy at
Agnes Scott, " which described Bradley Observatory, a brandnew
facility built on the campus of a small women's college
in Decatur, Georgia. Most readers likely hadn't even heard of
the school, and yet it was now home to a 30-inch telescope -
the largest in the southeastern U.S.
The Georgian building housing the instrument still stands
today and, more than 70 years later, continues to bustle with
research, teaching, and community gatherings. The fact that
this dramatic structure came to be built in Decatur at a cost
equivalent to more than $1 million today speaks to how large
an impact the telescope was expected to have on those who
peered through its eyepiece.
Agnes Scott College isn't the only small school with big,
cosmic dreams. Similarly significant investments
were, and continue, to be made at
small colleges and universities across the
country, suggesting that such facilities
have something unique to offer even in the
modern era of orbiting telescopes and grand
national observatories. Perhaps modest college
observatories can occupy an important
place in the astronomical landscape as the
public and local faces of astronomy. This
role is especially important at colleges that
uCOVER STORY Agnes Scott College's Bradley
Observatory was featured on the cover of Sky &
Telescope in September 1950, the year the facility
was dedicated.
28 APRIL 2022 * SKY & TELESCOPE
serve underrepresented populations, like women's colleges
and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).
Such observatories provide a pathway into science and give
both students and the community a way to experience the
universe directly. The three institutions we highlight in this
article share similarities in their size, their diverse student
populations, and their early and continuing dedication to
astronomical research and education.
Looking Back to the Future
College observatories in the U.S. were largely built in the 19th
and 20th centuries, but their intellectual and architectural
heritage can be traced to much earlier edifices in Europe.
That continent's first observatories were associated with
churches and states. These early buildings, and the work done
within their walls, " brought glory " to the state, says Michael
Lynn, a historian at Purdue University Northwest in Indiana.
" The grandeur of the building was meant to reflect the grandeur
of the state that funded it, " says Lynn. Large national
observatories arguably follow in this tradition today, minus
some grandeur and plus lots of technology.
But while governments and religious
organizations undergirded many of these
European observatories, quite a few of the
structures nevertheless existed on college
and university campuses. As with modern
institutions, work carried out at these early
school-based centers played a critical role
in giving students something astronomical
to do with their newly acquired algebra and
trigonometry skills. By 1800, at least 130
observatories existed in western Europe,
according to Lynn.
In the U.S., most universities and colleges
are privately funded and aim to contribute
Sky & Telescope - April 2022

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