Captain Cook, Mabo and the Stars of the Tagai

Dr Ragbir Bhathal

Ragbir Bhathal is an Australian astronomer and author, currently based at the Western Sydney University (WSU), Australia. He is known for his work on Optical Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (OSETI). He did his Ph.D. in magnetism at the University of Queensland. He has served as a UNESCO consultant on science policy for the ASEAN group of nations, as an Adviser to the Federal Minister for Science and was the Project Director for the million dollar Sydney Observatory restoration building program. Bhathal also designed and built the twin dome Campbelltown Rotary Observatory at the WSU Campbelltown Campus and was Patron of Macarthur Astronomical Society from 1997 to 2011.

On 16th May, 2018, The Macarthur Advertiser newspaper reported in its printed version that Dr Bhathal "was recently elected as a Fellow of the London-based Royal Astronomical Society".

Bhathal carries out research in nanosecond laser pulsed communications, astrophysics, galactic surveys, astronomical image analysis and processing at UWS. In December 2008, he observed a sharp 'laser look-alike' signal emanating from the globular cluster 47 Tucanae. However, despite further searches, the signal has yet to be replicated.