Radhagobinda Chandra
Encyclopedia
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
and West Bengal
West Bengal
West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...
. He was born in Bangladesh when this country was a part of British India. Radha Gobinda is especially famous for his observation of variable stars
Variable star
A star is classified as variable if its apparent magnitude as seen from Earth changes over time, whether the changes are due to variations in the star's actual luminosity, or to variations in the amount of the star's light that is blocked from reaching Earth...
. He observed more than 49,700 variable stars and became one of the first international members of American Association of Variable Star Observers
American Association of Variable Star Observers
Since its founding in 1911, the American Association of Variable Star Observers has coordinated, collected, evaluated, analyzed, published, and archived variable star observations made largely by amateur astronomers and makes the records available to professional astronomers, researchers, and...
.
Biography
Radha Gobinda was born in a small village named Bagchar in the district proper of Jessore in BangladeshBangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
on July 16, 1878. His father, Gorachand was the assistant of a local doctor and mother, Padmamukh, was a housewife. His primary education started in Bakchar School. After passing from here he was admitted in Jessore Zilla School
Jessore Zilla School
Jessore Zilla School, established in 1838, is one of the oldest schools in Jessore District, southwest Bangladesh. In 2000 it had some 1,450 students, running in two shifts .History=...
at the age of 10. At this time Chandra started observing the stars in the sky by naked eye. But he was not that interested in formal education. Instead his main interest was centered on the mysterious night sky. Due to this lack of attention in formal education he failed to pass Secondary School Certificate
Secondary School Certificate
The Secondary School Certificate, also known as SSC, is a public examination taken by students in Bangladesh, Pakistan and in the states of Tamilnadu, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Goa in India after successfully completing at least ten years of schooling. It is followed...
(SSC) three times subsequently.
In 1899, at an age of 21, Radhagobinda married Gobinda Mohini, a girl from Murshidabad
Murshidabad
Murshidabad is a city in Murshidabad district of West Bengal state in India. The city of Murshidabad is located on the southern bank of the Bhagirathi, a distributary of the Ganges River. It was the capital of undivided Bengal during the Mughal rule. Nawabs of Bengal used to rule Bengal from this...
who was just 9 years old at that time. Together they had a boy named Kal (English: time) and a girl named Barsha (English: rain). After marriage Chandra attended the SSC exam for the last time and failed again. Due to these failures he left formal education and planned to start a job. After searching a job for two years he was finally able get a job of ordinary treasurer in Jessore collectorate office
District collector
The District Collector is the district head of administration of the bureaucracy in a state of India. Though he/she is appointed and is under general supervision of the state government, he/she has to be a member of the elite IAS recruited by the Central Government...
. Then his monthly salary was only 15 Taka. Later he became treasury clerk and after that chief treasurer of in this office.
From a very early age he had immense interest in Astronomy
Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...
and later in life started doing amateur astronomy
Amateur astronomy
Amateur astronomy, also called backyard astronomy and stargazing, is a hobby whose participants enjoy watching the night sky , and the plethora of objects found in it, mainly with portable telescopes and binoculars...
on his own. When he was in grade 6 at school they used to had a textbook called Charupath from where he read an inspiring prose on Astronomy and Cosmology
Cosmology
Cosmology is the discipline that deals with the nature of the Universe as a whole. Cosmologists seek to understand the origin, evolution, structure, and ultimate fate of the Universe at large, as well as the natural laws that keep it in order...
by Bengal
West Bengal
West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...
writer Akshay Kumar Datta
Akshay Kumar Datta
Akshay Kumar Datta was born in Chupi in Bardhaman. Son of Pitamber Dutta, he was one of the initiators of the Bengal Renaissance. After studying in the Oriental Seminary under the special care of Hardman Jeffroy, he had to give up studies because of the death of his father and go job-seeking...
. He wanted to become an astronomer reading this. Later he wrote about this in his autobiography,
External links
- The AAVSO and International Cooperation, about the works of Radha Gobinda.
- Radha Gobinda Chandra, A Pioneer in Astronomical Observations in India by Amalendu Bandyopadhyay, Birla Planetarium and Ranatosh Chakraborti, Surendranath College.