A bit about myself

Education :
                    B.Sc. Bangalore University, (May 1980)
                    M.Sc. Pune University* (June 2002)

I did my M.Sc. under the Partly by Research and Partly by Paper programme of the Pune University.

          I do not have a PhD degree and therefore 
I am not to be addressed as Dr Arvind Paranjpye
          I am making this specific mention because often people put me in an awkward position
          by addressing me as a 'doctor'.

For some of the pictures, click here

Email me at >> paranjpye.arvind@gmail.com

Presently, I am the Director of  the Nehru Planetarium of the Nehru Centre, Mumbai,
I joined the Nehru Centre on 22nd Dec 2011
My address
Director
Nehru Planetarium, Nehru Centre,
Dr Annie Besant Road,
Worli, Mumbai 400018
India

I maintain a site 'Celestial events for viewing pleasure'  <link>. On this site, I am updating the list of forthcoming astronomical events, which is particularly useful for Indian observers.

Experience and interest:
For most of my life, I have been interested in Astronomy, which accounts for my hobby/passion and my career. I have been interested in various hobbies, from stamp-collecting, ship and boat modelling, photography etc. 

I had been an amateur astronomer since my college days.

My professional career started as an assistant in the photographic laboratory of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore, India, in December 1981.   Working in the lab, mostly alone, I mastered various laboratory photography techniques.  Conventional photography has now been replaced by digital imagery.

I spent two years in the extremely arid Himalayan region (Sep'84 to Aug. '86).  During this period, I took site survey observations for a high altitude infra-red observatory.

Upon return from Leh, I was involved in the search for minor bodies in the solar system. In 1988, our team became the first Indians to discover a new asteroid, which was named 4130 Ramanujan. We were awarded the Astronomical Society of India Medal for discovering an asteroid in 1996. 

Asteroid 17446 Mopaku was named after three team members: Venkatachala Moorthy, Arvind Paranjpye, and Kamatchiappan Kuppuswamy. The asteroid was discovered on January 23, 1990. 

For a short period, I also took some spectroscopic observations using 1 and 2.3-meter telescopes at Kavalur.

I joined the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics in April '91.  Initially, I worked on developing low-cost instruments for astronomical observations.  And carried out site survey observations.

I had been involved in IUCAA's science popularisation activities since the day they started, and later became in charge of the programme.  

As an amateur astronomer, I had opportunities to observe and photograph the following major celestial events -

Total Solar Eclipses
16 Feb 1980 (India),
24 Oct 1995 (India),
11 Aug 1999 (Iran)
21 Jun  2001 (Zambia)
22 Jul 2009  (China) - we had an overcast sky
21 Aug 2017 (USA)

Annular Solar Eclipse
15 Jan 2010

Transit of Venus
June 8, 2004

I have contributed columns or short articles to various newspapers and periodicals on sky watching and astronomy Q&A, such as Indian Express, the Times of India, Tarun Bharat, Sakal Saptahik, etc.

From time to time, I have been on the radio and television. I have hosted live sky shows on All India Radio, Pune and Mumbai.

In 1996, I received the New Discovery Award for 'Discovery related to asteroids' from the Astronomical Society of India (ASI). (Ref.) 

In 2023, I received the Zubin Kembhavi Award for Public Outreach and Education in Astronomy from the  Astronomical Society of India (ASI).(Ref.)





I was a member of the Astronomical Society of India's




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