GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — The Grand Rapids Public Museum is getting ready to explore outer space.

The museum is hosting a pair of events that will look at the wonders of astronomy, starting with an event to celebrate statewide astronomy night later this month.

Visitors to the museum’s Veen Observatory can look up at the night sky through telescopes. The free event will also feature educational activities, where people can learn from Grand Valley State University educators.

Also in April, the observatory will host a presentation from a NASA research scientist about his own personal memories of space exploration.

“That is a free public talk and we are hosting this guest lecture, his name is Dr. Brent Bos. He’s a NASA scientist and engineer. He worked on the OSIRIS-REx mission to land on an asteroid which was really cool. And a fun thing about Brent Bos is he’s actually a West Michigan native. And he actually visited the Chaffee Planetarium as a second grader and it was really inspiring for him to pursue a career in space exploration,” said Jack Daleske, GRPM planetarium manager.

Daleske said Bos will talk about some of the missions he is working on now.

“We’re also working with him to go around to some K-12 schools and do some outreach there and talk to them about getting a career in space exploration and engineering,” added Daleske.

The presentation by Bos is happening April 26 at 7:30 p.m. at the Meijer Theater at the Grand Rapids Public Museum.

The statewide astronomy night celebration will happen Saturday April 29 starting at 8:30 p.m. That night will kick off a series of public observing nights at Veen Observatory running from May until November.

Correction: A previous version of this article misspelled Bos’ last name. We regret the error, which has been fixed.