Ragbir Bhathal
Ragbir Bhathal was an Australian astronomer and author who worked at Western Sydney University. He was best known for his work in Optical SETI, the search for signals from other civilizations using light. He taught and conducted research at WSU until his death on 30 November 2022, at the age of 86. He earned his PhD in magnetism from the University of Queensland and served as a UNESCO science-policy consultant for ASEAN, an adviser to Australia’s Federal Minister for Science, and the project director for the Sydney Observatory restoration.
Bhathal designed and built the twin-domed Campbelltown Rotary Observatory at the WSU Campbelltown Campus, and he was its Director from 2000 to 2022. He was also the Patron of the Macarthur Astronomical Society from 1997 to 2011. In May 2018, he was reported as being elected a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.
His research covered nanosecond laser-pulsed communications, astrophysics, galactic surveys and astronomical image analysis. In December 2008, he observed a sharp laser-like signal from the globular cluster 47 Tucanae, but the signal has not been replicated.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 07:03 (CET).