An Evening with the Moon
Planetarium show and overall serious nerd-out
Royal Observatory, Blackheath Ave, Greenwich, SE10 8XJ
£16.00
There has been many events this summer to celebrate five decades since Apollo 11 first landed on the moon on July 20th 1969. None, however, quite caught my eye like this one. Described as “an evening of moongazing”, a night with the moon offered guests the opportunity to partake in a moon-themed planetarium show and the chance to look through a 18-tonne Victorian telescope.
When we arrived at 19:15, 20 mins early, I was pretty surprised to find the venue mostly empty. We went to the barren café and got a London IPA (£4.5) and a pretty decent glass of red (£5) and took them outside to look at the pretty fantastic view over London that the top of Greenwich park provides. After this we had a quick peruse around the Moon exhibition they had on - nothing on the Astronomy Photographer of the Year I saw here a while back, but an interesting intro to get us in the mood.
Bang on time we were ushered into the planetarium: a weird, circular sort-of cinema with reclined seats and a ceiling screen. We had a witty, slightly awkward, but very informative astronomer who guided us through not only the moon, but the milky way and astrology symbols too. The visuals were unparalleled when it comes to anything I’ve seen of outer space before, and I would highly recommend a planetarium visit if you haven’t done one before. At the end of the tour, which I would say lasted around 20 minutes, we were given the option to ask questions. This is where it all got a little too expansive for me, as the astronomer did some pretty deep dives into realms that I’m pretty sure no one in the audience understood…
From the planetarium we were shown up to the telescope in a separate building. After being given some history of both the observatory and the telescope, we were given the opportunity to take a look at the moon ourselves. The conditions were slightly cloudy and the almost-golden-hour setting made the moon appear milky and hazy. This, however, was still a seriously cool experience, saying that you have seen the moon up close first hand and not simply through a photograph or digital replica.
Overall, I thought that this experience was original, insightful and good value for money (considering the usual planetarium shows are £16 alone). Although I believe we went to the last in the series, I would recommend a visit to Greenwich or any planetarium near you as it is truly a magical experience that gets you seriously thinking about aliens, earth and how insignificant we really are. Sometimes exactly what us self-centred humans need is to be reminded that we are a mere tiny blip in an absolutely marvellous universe.
OVERALL RATING: ****
https://www.rmg.co.uk/see-do/exhibitions-events/evening-moon
