New House - Building My Dream Astrophotography Man Cave!
Date: April 14, 2024
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An Office in the Gear Section?
Yup! When you think about it - every astrophotographer needs a place to work - and that place could be an office. Perhaps even an office dedicated to Astrophotography.
What if you had more space for an office than you ever thought you would have?
What if you could set up an office in any way you wanted?
That is where I find myself, so I thought I would share what I ended up doing—perhaps it would help others think through what they could do in their own space.
Background
Ideally, every astrophotographer needs a place to focus his/her efforts. A space for a computer where they can do their Image Processing. A place for some books and star atlases to plan their shoots. A place to store their extraneous astronomy gear.
For me, this has been my Den.
If you have ever seen any of my videos, then you have seen my Den. It has been small, packed to the hilt with my “stuff” (as I keep telling my wife - “it’s not junk!), and it’s been fairly functional.
But, as many of you know, we have been looking for a new place with more open skies where I could build an observatory. Last October, after two years of searching, we found our next home. It provided a decent spot for an observatory - and it offered something I had not expected - a very large space where I could put my office!
My old den measured 11’ x 12’ and had a tiny closet for gear.
My new den, now renamed “The Astro Cave,” measures a whopping 16’ x 27’ and has a walk-in closet for gear. It was built as a bonus room located over the garage, but it was perfect for me!
I realize that I am spoiled having a room this size, so I should mention that there is a beautiful first-floor office space with a large bay window that my wife has taken for her own. It's conveniently located in the center of the house and has extremely nice finishes. So she now has her own dream office, as do I. I was willing to have mine on the second floor as the size and features more than compensate for this minor inconvenience.
Besides the square acerage and the closet, it also included a mini-kitchen area with counters, a sink, and a refrigerator!
Finally - there was a bathroom right outside its door!
It also had a wood stove. Oh Boy. I don’t really want the wood stove. I can’t imagine dragging wood through the whole house to get it here or bringing ashes back in the other direction. So - at some point - I may remove this feature!
We had a month or so before the move, so I had time to consider how I might use the space.
Planning
Here is what I had to work with:
The basic layout. The notches on the right are dormered windows overlooking the driveway.
Here’s one view of the empty room - showing the wood stove, and the counter/sink area.
Facing the other way. The Rug came with the house.
I took measurements and then started thinking about how I might use this space. Here were my wants:
A larger image processing area
An area for my Astro library - along with a library table that I could use to spread out Atlases and references
A small Theater area
Storage for my gear
A coffee maker and microwave
Most of this list should look pretty reasonable to you - but a Small Theater Area???
Where did this come from?
Well, as we assessed the new house, we realized that the TV setup we had in our old family room would not work out in the new place, nor would some of the furniture. The new family room really wanted a TV mounted over the fireplace, and our 75-inch TV was too large for that space. In addition, we acquired the sectional sofa that was in the house, so we no longer needed our sofa. We decided to go with a Sonos sound bar on the TV, so suddenly, our 7.1 surround sound system was free.
Long story short, I could inherit all of this stuff from the old family room and create a small theater in the new Astro Cave. Whoa! Did I hit the jackpot or what?
So, with this in mind, I started planning out my layout. I tried a lot of configurations but finally ended up with something I liked.
The final configuration from my planning phase.
For the Image processing area, I decided to go with:
Two 72” standing desks
Twin Pneumatic Arms to hold the monitors off the desk and provide more desk space.
An under-table keyboard tray
Two wheeled file cabinets that would fit under the desks
For the library area:
I went with a set of three 72” high wood bookcases that I would place in a row. This would hold my Astro Library and separate the room into an Astro area vs. the theater area. I would add some shorter bookcases of the same style to the room to hold my non-Astro books.
I would use my old wooden desk as the library table.
I would place my leather recliner here as well - as I often write my blogs and edit videos while sitting there.
For the Theater Area, I just used my hand-me-down electronics and furniture from the Family Room:
A 75” TV and tv-stand
the 7.1 surround system.
A sofa, chair, and coffee table
With these basic ideas in hand, the next part of my plan took form.
Black Friday
Most of this came together as a plan a few weeks before Thanksgiving. Since Black Friday was not far off, I researched what I needed to buy—both for the new Astro Cave and the rest of the new house—and waited to make my purchases.
Once Black Friday hit, I was like a cyber-ninja, grabbing the best deals I could. I was pretty successful in picking up everything I wanted, and in the process, I saved a bundle.
I also was able to pick up some small 4K TVs that I decided to use in the space. One would be used for a digital Geochron, and the other would display my favorite astro images.
Some of the items were so large that I could not fit them in my car, and I rented a U-Hall panel truck to move the delivered items to the new house.
Fortunately, my younger son, Kevin, was able to visit from Boston. He was a huge help when it came to hauling around heavy boxes, doing assembly, and mounting things that would have been impossible for me to do single-handed.
Then, we spent several days tearing open boxes, assembling, and setting these items up - well before we moved.
But with this effort, the Astro Cave Started Coming together.
The Astro Cave Begins to Take Form
So, with the Black Friday deliveries and items that my wife and I brought over ourselves, I started to set up the Astro Cave.
Standing Desks, Montitor arms, and Wheeled Filing Carts now in place.
The “Wall of Books” set up.
What will become the Theater Side of the Astro Cave.
Another view of the Image Processing area. My image processing computer and twin 32” 4K monitors are now in place.
The first thing I brought over was my image-processing computer. You can read more about the system I built to process images in this Post. With that, I could almost completely set up the image-processing area.
In this view you can see the the streaming lights setup and the cheap 4K monitor on the far wall that I use to cycle through my favorite Astro Images.
The Move
The move brought everything over. Besides all of the boxes, they also brough some furniture that the movers had a heck of a time getting up the stairs into the room.
Besides the boxes with all of the books, you can see my wood desk “Library Table” and the new Microwave and Coffee Maker on the counter top.
The furniture from the old Family Room is now in place
Another view.
The Unpacking
The first things that got unpacked were the master bedroom and the kitchen - for obvious reasons.
But soon after that, the Astro Cave was almost entirely set up. Below, you can see it in its final form - along with a video walk-through.
Image Processing Area
Astro Library
Mini Kitchen - with the Digital Geochron from my Ham Shack.
Another view of the Astro Library.
My comfy chair…
The Mini Theater
The TV, Surround System, front speakers and sub woofer in the corner.
And here is the full video companion to this post found on my YouTube Channel:
Remaining Issues
While the space has been wonderful, there are a few residual issues that I need to deal with.
The Woodpecker from Hell!
While I am not a big fan of the woodstove, I found one other aspect that really drives me a bit nuts.
A local woodpecker has decided that the chimney cap was an ideal spot to land and peck away at. Apparently, on a sunny day, the bright reflections around noon attract the woodpecker. This can be pretty irritating, to say the least! When I am recording videos, it will definitely be a problem.
I have been posting a series on Facebook about my battle with a small herd of deer that have been hanging out where my future observatory will go, and now it seems I have another small battle with nature on my hands.
The video below captures the jackhammer sound, but the volume is a little low. Research tells me that this likely a mating behavior and should go away in later spring - I hope!
Speaker Resonance
With the smaller room, the 7.1 surround system sounds amazing.
However, I found that the subwoofer resonates with an access panel on the wall in one of the window niches. It seems to start around 5hz and then really jumps at 20hz. The sound it makes is impressive! I will need to get some weather stripping in there to cut this out.
I know - I know - first-world problems! I thought it was kind of funny - I fear my subwoofer is way too large for this small space!
Conclusion
I love my new space!
It came together quickly, and I think it will really meet my needs. It was fun to work on it during our November-to-March cloudy season.
I hope by sharing this that you might get ideas for enhancing your own Astro Workspace!
Now - it is time to move beyond this - and start focusing on:
Building my observatory
Getting my scopes back into action while the observatory is being built.
Stay tuned!
