# Mayukh Bagchi > PhD candidate in Astronomy and Astrophysics at Queen's University, Canada. Builds high-frequency, balloon-borne radio instrumentation for Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI), aimed at sharpening images of black-hole shadows and eventually resolving photon rings. Mayukh Bagchi trained as an electrical engineer before moving to Canada for astronomy. His research is instrumental rather than purely theoretical: he designs, builds and flies the hardware and control software that lets a telescope on a stratospheric balloon act as a VLBI station alongside ground-based observatories. His main project is BVEX, the Balloon-borne VLBI Experiment, a 22 GHz radio telescope that flew from Timmins, Ontario in August 2025 and is being rebuilt for a 2027 flight. Alongside research he runs a science-outreach YouTube channel, writes about astronomy and research tooling, offers paid one-to-one consultation on graduate applications and research instrumentation, and builds small independent software products. This site is written and maintained by Mayukh Bagchi. Blog articles adapted from his YouTube videos are drafted with AI assistance from his own video transcripts and reviewed by him before publication. ## Core pages - [Home](https://mayukhbagchi.com): Overview of Mayukh Bagchi's research, writing and science communication. - [About](https://mayukhbagchi.com/about): Background, the path from electrical engineering into radio astronomy, personal interests, and independent software projects. - [Research](https://mayukhbagchi.com/research): Full research portfolio, current and past projects, and publications in preparation. - [BVEX: Balloon-borne VLBI Experiment](https://mayukhbagchi.com/research/bvex): The flagship project. A 22 GHz balloon-borne radio telescope built to demonstrate the first VLBI correlation between a stratospheric balloon and a ground-based observatory. - [How VLBI works from a balloon](https://mayukhbagchi.com/research/bvex/how-it-works): Illustrated explainer covering geometric delay, why 40 km altitude matters at 22 GHz, and the timing, position and data-rate problems balloon-borne VLBI has to solve. - [CV](https://mayukhbagchi.com/cv): Academic curriculum vitae, viewable and downloadable as PDF. - [Consultation](https://mayukhbagchi.com/consultation): Paid one-to-one sessions on graduate school applications, radio astronomy instrumentation and research careers. - [Contact](https://mayukhbagchi.com/contact): Direct contact form and professional links. ## Research topics - [Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI)](https://mayukhbagchi.com/research/bvex): Linking radio telescopes across large baselines to synthesise a much larger effective aperture. - [Balloon-borne radio astronomy](https://mayukhbagchi.com/research/bvex): Operating a radio telescope at roughly 40 km altitude, above most of the atmospheric water vapour that limits high-frequency observing from the ground. - [Black hole imaging and photon rings](https://mayukhbagchi.com/research): Resolving the shadow and the nested photon ring structure around supermassive black holes. - [RFSoC and FPGA instrumentation](https://mayukhbagchi.com/research/bvex): Real-time digitisation, polyphase filterbank spectroscopy and 2-bit requantisation for VLBI signal chains. ## Writing - [I Coded a Mathematically Accurate Wormhole from scratch!](https://mayukhbagchi.com/blogs/Coding-Morris-Thorne-in-Python): What would a real traversable wormhole look like? I built a GPU-accelerated wormhole simulation in Python using the Morris-Thorne metric — the same physics t... - [I Read ALL The 3I/ATLAS Research Papers...THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING!](https://mayukhbagchi.com/blogs/3iatlas-research-papers): As a PhD student in astronomy, I had to address the MASSIVE misinformation about interstellar object 3I/ATLAS flooding YouTube – from alien technology claims... - [How do Astronomers Process REAL JWST Data? 😲 *tutorial for everyone*](https://mayukhbagchi.com/blogs/how-do-astronomers-process-real-jwst-data): Ever wondered if NASA's space photos are real? Have you ever thought how those jaw-dropping James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) images are actually made? Spoil... - [How to write thesis in latex Overleaf? *2025 Full tutorial* | FREE Overleaf template](https://mayukhbagchi.com/blogs/how-to-write-thesis-in-latex-overleaf-2025-full-tutorial): #thesis #latextutorial This is a step-by-step tutorial on writing your thesis using Overleaf, an online collaborative tool using latex. I will review the ent... - [Astronomers Just Found Planet 9?! (A wild 23-Year Infrared Trail)](https://mayukhbagchi.com/blogs/astronomers-just-found-planet-9-a-wild-23-year-infrared-trai): In this video, we decode the brand-new Planet Nine study by Terry Long Phan et al.(2025) and follow a 23-year infrared breadcrumb trail—from IRAS (1983) to A... - [How does a radio telescope work?](https://mayukhbagchi.com/blogs/how-does-a-radio-telescope-work): This video explains how radio telescopes work and are used to observe astronomical objects. Join me as I climb on top of a Very Large Array (VLA) antenna and... - [Make Your Own Star Map For Any Memory!](https://mayukhbagchi.com/blogs/make-your-own-star-map-for-any-memory): Learn how to create your own personalized start map, showing the constellations at any special moment. These custom charts make a unique personalized gift. C... - [JWST Spots a Galaxy So Far Away It Breaks Physics? Crisis in Cosmology](https://mayukhbagchi.com/blogs/jwst-breaks-physics-crisis-in-cosmology): https://giftthestars.com← Create your own custom star chart (digital download or framed print) --- In today’s video, we dive into JWST’s record-breaking disc... - [This $1 Billion Vera Rubin Observatory Just Rewrote Astronomy!](https://mayukhbagchi.com/blogs/this-1-billion-vera-rubin-observatory-just-rewrote-astronomy): 🔭 Personalised star charts & solar-system prints ➜ https://giftthestars.com (support the channel & OWN your piece of the cosmos!) 🌌 What's in this video? T... ## Science communication - [Outreach](https://mayukhbagchi.com/outreach): YouTube channel, public talks and science communication work. - [Conference travel](https://mayukhbagchi.com/conference-travel): Interactive globe of conferences, observatories and research travel. ## Independent projects - [Perch](https://perchondesk.com/): Open-source desk dashboard for a Raspberry Pi, with widgets and a voice-driven assistant. MIT licensed. - [Gift the Stars](https://giftthestars.com): Custom star charts of a specific moment in the night sky, from design to printed poster. - [OutSpot YT](https://outspotyt.com/): YouTube analytics for creators, covering outlier detection, idea scoring and hook analysis. - [Distil](https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/distil/biejgndjnkgjmcmfhnhenkhnofoelhfa): Minimal new-tab Chrome extension with arXiv feeds, a Pomodoro timer and NASA APOD backgrounds. ## Elsewhere - [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/@mayukh_bagchi): Science-outreach videos on astronomy and astrophysics. - [GitHub](https://github.com/mayukh4): Research code, flight software and independent projects. - [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/mayukh-bagchi/): Professional profile. ## Optional - [RSS feed](https://mayukhbagchi.com/rss.xml): Full feed of published articles. - [Sitemap](https://mayukhbagchi.com/sitemap.xml): Every indexable URL on the site. - [Robots](https://mayukhbagchi.com/robots.txt): Crawl directives. Preferred citation: Mayukh Bagchi, https://mayukhbagchi.com Contact: mayukh.bagchi@queensu.ca Last updated: 2026-09-11