Successful Stargazing Despite Deluge

I am nothing if not creative and adaptable! I was coordinating an event with Aldrich Astronomical Society for a large technology business. They were having a conference that was going to have a big party afterward that was a “camping under the stars” theme and they wanted us to have a stargazing program. Things were going really well, until the weather forecast a couple days before predicted 100% pouring, heavy, flooding rain. I quickly pivoted the program to run indoors. We brought all our telescopes and equipment to show people, had a table of iPads running stargazing apps so people could go “stargazing” without going out in the pouring rain, and had a lot of information stations around the room about dark skies, amateur astronomy, campfire stories about star mythology, and a lot more! With a little ambient lighting and some background music, it was a fantastic event for our 1000 guests! The worst part was the chaos of loading and unloading in the pouring rain. We broke records for rainfall that day, and it was pouring all day. But everyone had fun and the business said they wanted to have us back when weather was nicer!