MnAstro Forums

Saw this headline in my news aggregator and it intrigued me:

"$1.5M Eden Prairie luxury home is a stargazer's delight
A couple built their Eden Prairie dream home to reflect their worldly and out-of-this-world passions."

https://www.startribune.com/1-5m-eden-p ... 573369781/

Sadly, it's behind the Star Trib paywall. Anyone know what's special about this property? Does it have an observatory?

I went to the real estate site zillow.com and looked for homes in Eden Prairie that are about $1.5M.
The house in the article is at 10618 Sonoma Ridge. It even shows the exact same photo as in the Star Trib article.
I looked at Google Earth. That street is at the top of a hill, but looking at the street view it does not strike me as especially promising as an observing site given the trees and surrounding homes.

From the Star Trib: "You can see the moon and sometimes even Venus from the two-story windows in Barbara Hamilton-Sustad's living room. A view of the planets and stars was one of the things that she and her late husband, Gary Sustad, thought about when they built their Eden Prairie home in 2006. He was a stargazer...." The rest of the article is about their parties and how beautiful the home is.

Google maps show a domed shape shadow in the back yard. Comparing shadows with the two story front of the house, the domed object is less than 5' high. Seems more like a beehive pizza oven. Dale is right, trees and houses limit the sky view, although a second story deck on the Southwest side should show the low lying Jupiter/Saturn conjunction coming up.

Bummer! What a bait and switch.

There WAS an observatory in Eden Prairie, in a neighborhood just east of Eden Prairie Rd, on the corner of Berger and Meadowvale (44.84711988381138, -93.48028801534183). Not there, anymore. I tried to find the owner, but it had been empty for sometime and no one I talked to knew the history.

It was a small brown brick building with a white metal dome. JUST big enough for a scope and a person. In fact the side walls (and thus the door) weren't even tall enough to walk in standing. I imagined that the open dome slit provided enough room, when placed above the door, that you could walk in without hunching. The slit and door, when aligned, would provide access. Always wondered what the story was with that place.

Can't help much there. Before the home at 8611 Meadowvale was built, what appears to be a domed structure present in April 1991 and removed between March 2005 and March 2006 (from Google Earth Pro). It was quite possibly used by the resident of 8610 Red Oak Dr, the only close house in 1991. Online property info doesn't go back that far.