Touring moon has powerful impact on town

The organisers of an exhibition say they have been taken aback by the popularity of an installation by a world-renowned artist.

The Museum of the Moon has been at St Martin's Church in Basildon, Essex, since 5 February and will close to the public on Saturday.

The 7m-wide (23ft) installation, created by Luke Jerram, features NASA imagery of the lunar surface.

Hannah Stacey, communities manager for Creative Basidon, said about 3,000 people had seen it.

It is free-of-charge to visit the installation, but all the remaining visitor slots until Saturday afternoon have been fully booked.

"We knew it would be popular, but we didn't quite anticipate how much people would want to come and see it," said Ms Stacey.

"It has been a really powerful response from the Basildon community."

Basildon Council said more than 20 million people across 41 countries, including Spain and Canada, had already seen the touring installation.

Basildon Council's Labour cabinet member for culture, sport and community, Jack Ferguson, said "we're proud to be the first in south Essex to host this iconic piece".

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