Meet Agnes Scott's Stars

The Bradley Observatory at will hold an open house lecture series, “Return of the Alumnae,” starting at 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 21.

All the speakers are graduates of the Agnes Scott Department of Physics and Astronomy who have gone on to graduate studies and careers. They will tell about their lives and work since they left Agnes Scott.

The first speaker is Allison Mercer of the class of 2003, now a research scientist at Georgia Tech Research Institute. She’ll speak on “Sensing Everything: How Wireless Sensor Networks are Shaping the Future of the Internet.”

A planetarium show and viewing with the observatory telescopes will follow the talk, weather permitting. The event is free and open to the public. The lectures and other events will be monthly through May, except for January.

On Saturday, Oct. 22, everybody can join the Japanese Club for the annual Moon Viewing Festival from 7 to 9 p.m. at the observatory.

The observatory also has a new Facebook page that fans and friends can visit, in addition to a page on the Agnes Scott website.

In case you've overlooked the observatory on the campus, this is what the college website says this it:

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, three 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.