MUMBAI: Eminent astronomer and space scientist, S M Chitre (84), who provided the first commentary during the inauguration of Nehru Planetarium in Worli, on March 3, 1977, passed away on Monday afternoon after a prolonged illness. He died at the Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani hospital.
Nehru Planetarium director, Arvind Paranjpye, recalled Chitre telling him that actor Dilip Kumar had trained him to face the microphone. Chitre gave the commentary to a show called “Tryst With Destiny”. Paranjpye said that Chitre had encouraged setting up a science lab at the planetarium to inspire school students to study science.
That Chitre was keen on encouraging students was amply evident from a remark made by a Mumbai University physics student, Ruchira Sawant, who remembered that on August 24, 2015, after a programme at the Nehru Planetarium, he pointed to her and inquired whether she understood what the main speaker had presented about atomic energy. She said she had.