He’s always been a fan of the night sky, but now British pop star Robbie Williams is set to take his obsession one step further – by building an “alien observatory”. According to sources in the US, the “Angels” star (who currently lives in Los Angeles) is planning on assembling his own observatory. Thirty-four-year-old Williams has been spending time at Arizona’s National Optical Astronomy Observatory, in Tucson, and now wants to add his own machinery to the search for other life-forms.

“He is leading a bizarre existence at the moment, vanishing into the desert to look at stars in far-flung galaxies,” says a so-called ‘source’. “He’s dead set on buying himself an observatory in the desert, which can cost up to £2.5 (AUS$5.4) million. He is hooked on all things from outer space.” Williams’ 2006 world tour was named Close Encounters, such is his obsession with space. “Seriously, I want to go out and investigate these things. I’m stopping being a pop star and becoming a full-time ufologist,” Williams said at the time, also stating that he’d been visited by aliens as a kid. “I was lying on my sun lounger outside at night,” he remembers. “Above me was a square thing that passed over my head slightly and shot off.”