Narayan Chandra Rana

Narayan Chandra Rana (12 October 1954 - 22 August 1996) was an Indian professor, writer and former Chairman of the Confederation of Indian Amateur Astronomers (CIAA).

Rana was born on 12 October 1954 in Sauri, a village in southern Midnapore, West Bengal, to parents Rajendra Prasad and Nakfuri Devi.

He was a student at the local school, Sauri Bholanath Vidyamandir.

At school, he met a graduate from Calcutta named Manindra Narayan Lahiri, an avid sky watcher, who introduced Rana to astronomy.

Manindra Narayan's observation sessions would have Rana as his assistant well past midnight.

Rana attended the Presidency College, where he met the cosmologist Professor Amal Kumar Raychaudhuri.

Rana joined the TIFR, Bombay, in 1977, where he began his research in astrophysics with Professor Jayant Vishnu Narlikar.

His thesis was entitled "An investigation of the properties of intergalactic dust".

Rana was awarded the INSA Young Scientist Award in 1983 and the Year’s Best Thesis award in the School of Physics, TIFR.

In spite of non-cooperative health and recurrent problems with his pacemaker, Rana has left his mark in many branches of astrophysics and in amateur astronomy in India.

He was the Chairman of the CIAA.

He was a researcher at TIFR, Bombay, till 1991, after which he worked as a research professor at IUCAA, Pune.

He worked as a director and member in many fields of astrophysics of national and international reputation.

In addition, he wrote about 70 research papers, many essays and lectures, and unfinished books and writings.

His project of measuring the diameter of the Sun during the total solar eclipse on 24 October 1995, involving a large team of young students, was a very challenging one.

Professor Narayan Chandra Rana died on 22 August 1996 in Pune, at the age of 42.