Ragbir Bhathal was an Australian astronomer and author, based at the Western Sydney University (WSU), Australia.

He 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.

On 16 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".

Dr Bhathal carried 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.