Arvind Bhatnagar

Arvind Bhatnagarmade signicant contributions to So-lar Astronomy, and founded several planetaria across In-dia. He was the founder-director of the Udaipur SolarObservatory, and the founder director of Nehru Plane-tarium of Bombay.[1]

Prof. Arvind Bhatnagar was known internationally forhis signicant contributions to Solar Astronomy. He wasthe founder-director of the Udaipur Solar Observatory.He also took immense interest in popularization of as-tronomy and helped establishing several planetaria acrossIndia. Arvind Bhatnagar was born in Beawar,Rajasthanon 19 November 1936. After completing his MSc inPhysics,he joined the UP State Observatory, Nainital, in1958 and worked there until 1961. He obtained his PhDdegree in Solar Physics in 1964 from Agra Universitywhile working at the Kodaikanal Observatory under theguidance of Prof. M K. Vainu Bappu.He was awarded the Carnegie Fellowship to work atMount Wilson and Palomar Observatories, USA, dur-ing 1968-70. Afterwards he worked as a Resident As-tronomer at the Big Bear Solar Observatory of the Cal-ifornia Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California,USA till 1972.In 1972, Prof. Bhatnagar returned to India to estab-lish a unique island solar observatory in the middleof Lake Fatehsagar in Udaipur under the aegis of theVedhshala,Ahmedabad. This lake site was carefully se-lected by him after taking into consideration the factsthat Rajasthan received the maximum sunshine and thelarge body of lake water helps to stabilize the air turbu-lence arising due to heating of ground by the solar radia-tion. Due to his eorts, the solar observatory was takenover by the Department of Space in December 1981 forits speedy growth, and was aliated to the Physical Re-search Laboratory, Ahmedabad. The Udaipur Solar Ob-servatory has become internationally renowned as one ofthe major centers for high-resolution solar observations.It is also one of the six observatories located around theworld participating in the Global Oscillations NetworkGroup (GONG) for the study of solar interior.Another important event in Dr. Arvind Bhatnagars Sci-entic tryst was on 24 October 1995, during the TotalSolar Eclipse, where Dr. Arvind Bhatnagar supervisedthe MiG-25 aircraft ying at 80,000 feet altitude as theytraveled along the path of the eclipse at 3,000 km/h, gain-ing several precious minutes of observation denied to re-searchers stuck on the ground.This was an attempt by Indian Scientists to pin down the

exact diameter of the sun-which today still remains un-known, by precisely measuring the suns shadow cast onthe earth. Three Indian Air Force planes were deployedwith cameramen and scientists to examine the umbra.Separately, a pair of IAFMiG-25 ghters were tted withequipment to photograph the outer solar corona and alsothe dust rings around it, in the darkest, clearest possiblesky.In 1996, Prof. Bhatnagar started a novel project calledSUCHE (Swatch, Healthy,Urban, Clean and HygienicEnvironment) Abhiyan in several localities of Udaipurunder ASTHA Sansthan for solid waste managementthrough public participation. He was also appointed asone of the High Court Commissioners to monitor the di-rectives of the High Court in connection with protectionof the lake system of Udaipur.Prof. Arvind Bhatnagar died on the evening of 18 May2006 at Udaipur leaving behind a large void in both sci-entic as well as social front.

1 Publications Fundamentals of Solar Astronomy, William Liv-ingston coauthor, World Scientic Publishing Com-pany, Inc., 2005

2 References[1] Bulletins of the Astronomical Society of India, Volume

34, Number 2, June 2006 Obituary

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