X

This giant R2-D2 is actually an observatory

This is the Star Wars droid building you're looking for.

Bonnie Burton
Journalist Bonnie Burton writes about movies, TV shows, comics, science and robots. She is the author of the books Live or Die: Survival Hacks, Wizarding World: Movie Magic Amazing Artifacts, The Star Wars Craft Book, Girls Against Girls, Draw Star Wars, Planets in Peril and more! E-mail Bonnie.
Bonnie Burton
Director J.J. Abrams, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy and astromech builders Lee Towersey and Oliver Steeples hang out with R2-D2 at Pinewood Studios.

The round dome head of the Star Wars astromech droid R2-D2 is about the same shape as the top of most observatories. 

Lucasfilm

If you're going to be lecturing at a university about Star Wars and other popular sci-fi movies, you might as well leave your mark in the geekiest way possible.

That's exactly what Professor Hubert Zitt did while teaching at the University of Kaiserslautern in Germany. 

Professor Zitt recruited a small team that included his father-in-law, Horst Helle, the master painter Klaus Ruffing and student volunteers to transform the university's domed-topped Zweibrücken Observatory into a giant version of the Star Wars astromech R2-D2

While the Star Wars makeover took place in September 2018, fans around the world have just started to take notice. 

Even Star Wars actor Mark Hamill tweeted about it on Friday with the caption, " R2-D2 Observatory Transformed Germans Into Giant Nerds."

This isn't the first university observatory to get a Star Wars makeover. Minnesota's Goodsell Observatory at Carleton College was made to look like R2-D2 back in 2010.

Watch this: 2019 sci-fi and geeky movies to freak out about

See Star Wars Lego Millennium Falcon sets over nearly 20 years

See all photos