While you might be looking forward to killer zombies in upcoming apocalypse flick ‘World War Z’, or enjoying the angsty emo variety in zom-rom-com ‘ Warm Bodies’, the Royal Observatory is hoping to focus your mind on a more cerebral level of sci-fi – that is, alien life forms. Its new exhibition, ‘Alien Revolution’, explores our fascination with aliens through nineteenth-century illustrations of moon maidens, snaps of the Mars rover Curiosity, 1970s evidence of crop circles, and stills from ’80s-favourite ‘ET’. The exhibition is small but an accompanying programme of events as part of an ‘alien season’ encourages visitors of all ages to look up to the sky with open-minded wonder.
Highlights include four sci-fi movie nights (featuring gems such as ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ and ‘The Day the Earth Stood Still’), as well as the ‘Explore Your Universe’ day on May 18, which includes an aliens planetarium show and a make- a-planet-finder session. You can also sign up for the ‘Aliens in Science Fiction’ short course, which covers the genre’s interplay of science, imagination and culture to help you write your own sci-fi.