A Cooke in Whitby

 

A Cooke in Whitby

There is a 5 inch Thomas Cooke and Sons telescope located in an observatory in the grounds of Whitby Community College which today is Whitby School.

The telescope dates from about 1880/1890 and was used between 1912 until 1932 by Mr John Bruce and the observatory is typical of a late 19^th early 20^th century design. Today the observatory is known as the Bruce Observatory.

The observatory appeared to be in use until the 1960s by the school physics department. I am not sure when it started to be less used but when I visited the observatory in the mid 1990s both the telescope and observatory needed some attention.

That seems to have been undertaken as the telescope is often used by the Whitby& District Astronomical Society who organise astronomical events there.