This Thursday is a good night to get your science on in West Philly. Guion “Guy” Bluford, the first African American in space and a West Philly native, will speak at the University of the Sciences’ McNeil Science and Technology Center (43rd and Woodland) at 7 p.m.as part of the Philadelphia Science Festival.

Bluford participated in four space shuttle missions between 1983 and 1992. He graduated from Overbrook High School and received a B.S. in aerospace engineering from Penn State before completing graduate work at the Air Force Institute of Technology.

After the talk star gazers are welcome to grab a blanket and head out to Clark Park where amateur astronomers, telescopes in tow, will be on hand to help you folks navigate the cosmos.

The observatories at Drexel and Penn will also open their doors for this astronomical extravaganza. Drexel’s Joseph R. Lynch Observatory (3141 Chestnut St.) will open at 8 p.m. and Penn’s David Rittenhouse Laboratories Observatory (209 S. 33rd St.) open at 8:30 p.m.