A planetarium is coming to London's Battersea Power Station, for a limited time only

Battersea Power Station has been a major South London shopping destination since it reopened in 2022, and it’s about to get another kind of attraction: a planetarium.

Your first reaction might be to ask how they’re gong to fit such a large-scale installation inside the building. The answer: they’re not.

This is Planetarium Go, which operates as a pop-up that merely needs a decent amount of square footage outside.

The audience sit on an auditorium’s worth of lean-back chairs, letting them comfortably gaze at the “360-degree visuals” projected above. It’s that classic planetarium experience, just not in a permanent location.

Planetarium Go opens at Battersea Power Station on January 30th and runs through to March 1st. And you get to choose from five films, which range between 20 minutes and 35 minutes in length. Tickets cost £15 a pop, and there are family packages that save you some money.

As you might guess, some of these films are intended for younger audiences than others. For the 3+ crowd there’s Little Red Riding Hood, in which the story book figure “enjoys learning about the North Star, constellations, and especially travelling to all the planets of the Solar System with her beloved grandmother's telescope.”

The Girl Who Walked Upside Down is recommended for those aged 5+, and is about a character who “knows the secrets of the Moon, can listen to the tides, and often chats with the trees.” It’s a 30-minute show.

3-2-1 Lift Off is a 35-minuter about Alan the hamster, a character who might remind you of Pixar or Dreamworks movies.

“Alan is a brilliant but underestimated hamster scientist living in a junkyard. One day, a mysterious crash leaves a crater in his garden—and inside is a damaged robot that fell from orbit,” reads the description.

There are two films for older audiences, both recommended for those aged 10+. The Ring World is a 20-minute classic exploration of the solar system, followed by a trip to another star.

“You'll travel to a nearby star and explore whether we could live on other planets,” says Go Planetarium. But this one is only 20 minutes long.

From Earth to the Universe is the most serious-sounding of all the films, a 30-minute doc that offers a more “in-depth, educational look at the basics of astronomy, perfect for those wanting to learn more about the universe.”

Each film gets two or three screenings a day, cinema style.

Planetarium Go has toured around Spain since 2022. Its Battersea Power Station debut marks the first time in has come to the UK, and there’s already a schedule for other stops across the country.

After closing up shop in London on March 1st, Planetarium Go will open in Sheffield on March 6th. It’s only here until March 28th, then travelling to Hull for an April 3rd to April 25th run. It’s In Manchester from May 1st to May 23rd and finishes up in Northampton.

You’ll be able to get tickets there from May 29th to June 1st, although only the London dates are actually on sale at present.

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