Eric: Welcome to Backfocus, bringing astronomy together.
Eric: I'm Eric.
Rowan: And I'm Rowan.
Eric: And thank you for joining me for my very first episode.
Eric: Whether you're an experienced astrophotographer,
Eric: a visual observer, a telescope maker,
Eric: a member of an astronomy club,
Eric: or someone who's just beginning to look up
Eric: at the night sky, this podcast is for you.
Rowan: I cannot overstate the importance
Rowan: that this is a place of learning.
Rowan: Many of us here are brand new
Rowan: to just the idea of astrophotography.
Rowan: And I myself am still learning every day.
Rowan: And I hope that you'll join me with that process.
Eric: First off, I'd like to talk about what Backfocus is.
Eric: This is a dream of mine that I've had for quite a while
Eric: in getting involved in astronomy and astrophotography.
Eric: I've been doing astronomy and astrophotography
Eric: for just a little over a year.
Eric: And when I first got started,
Eric: I had a DSLR camera.
Eric: That's all I had.
Eric: And I went out and bought a nice lens, a Rokinon lens.
Eric: And I went out and bought a Star Adventure
Eric: two-eye tracking mount.
Eric: And I was not happy with my experience.
Eric: So I joined up with another group of astronomers near me
Eric: with Chagrin Valley Astronomical Society.
Eric: After this point, I slowly began to build up
Eric: both my experience and my equipment
Eric: to kind of get myself up to a higher level
Eric: that I was happy with.
Eric: Now, for some people, they're happy with a DSLR
Eric: and they're happy with not having to process images.
Eric: Some people are happy with just having a telescope
Eric: to look at the night sky and see the stars
Eric: and be able to say, I found that object.
Eric: I looked up at the sky and that object
Eric: I was looking for, I actually found it myself
Eric: that literally puts goosebumps on my skin
Eric: every single time it happens.
Eric: And I now have an F4 six-inch telescope.
Eric: I have a Rokinon entire set up for Nebulae photography.
Eric: I have an eight-inch Dobsonian.
Eric: I have several other pieces of equipment,
Eric: including a 10-inch, 18-inch Newtonian coming as well.
Eric: And my experience has shown me that being in astronomy
Eric: is fun, but it's not nearly as fun
Eric: as being in astronomy with other people.
Rowan: Now, unlike Eric, I did not have the freedom
Rowan: of just being able to buy everything I wanted
Rowan: right from the get-go.
Rowan: My first telescope actually was inherited from my uncle.
Rowan: When he passed away, he left me a decent telescope
Rowan: and a bunch of different sky maps.
Rowan: He had one for every month dating as far back as 2007.
Rowan: He had been doing this for most of his life.
Rowan: And to this point, you know,
Rowan: I've kept up with those star maps even now.
Eric: I can't tell you guys how much fun it was
Eric: to be frustrated at Observatory Park in Montville, Ohio
Eric: and not knowing what to do.
Eric: And turning to the guides on my left and saying,
Eric: hey, do you know how to work this stupid mount?
Eric: I can't figure it out.
Eric: And that guy is saying, yeah,
Eric: I had that stupid mount before too.
Eric: This is exactly what you have to do.
Eric: And he showed me hand and foot what to do with this mount.
Eric: And it was mind-blowing to me
Eric: that people like that even existed.
Eric: And that's something that I see in this hobby
Eric: over and over and over again
Eric: is not only are people interested about their hobby,
Eric: not only are they interested about talking about their hobby,
Eric: but they're interested in helping others
Eric: learn about their hobby as well.
Eric: And that is what this podcast is all about.
Eric: The reason why back focus exists
Eric: is because of something that happened recently
Eric: where we have an annual event called the OTAA,
Eric: which is supposed to be an event
Eric: for all the clubs in Northeast Ohio.
Eric: And only maybe two clubs came out to the event.
Eric: And I remember seeing another YouTuber's video
Eric: and saying, hey, he's the president
Eric: of one of the other groups in our area.
Eric: Let me talk to him and invite him to this event.
Eric: He said he's never heard of it before.
Eric: And that blew my mind
Eric: because I know that I invited their group.
Eric: I'm the secretary of CVAS now.
Eric: And I know that I invited their group,
Eric: but none of them showed up.
Eric: And that's one of the things that I am frustrated about
Eric: is that we have so many people who love this hobby,
Eric: but they have no idea how to connect.
Eric: They have no idea who all is around them,
Eric: who loves this hobby too.
Eric: So the mission and the goal and the purpose of back focus
Eric: is to bring everyone together.
Eric: And as a matter of fact,
Eric: that back focus name comes from the aspect of focus
Eric: when you have a camera and a telescope together.
Eric: There comes a singular point
Eric: where light comes to a single focus
Eric: and that's where your camera needs to be at
Eric: to get a clear and focused picture.
Eric: If you're off by just a little bit, you'll get lost.
Eric: You'll get distracted.
Eric: You won't be able to take a clear image
Eric: and you'll get frustrated.
Eric: And the goal of this podcast
Eric: is to help you guys find the groups near you,
Eric: to let them talk about themselves,
Eric: to let them advertise the events they have going on.
Eric: Do you realize there's a star party near you
Eric: happening almost every single day
Eric: or at least every week?
Eric: Within 30 miles of you probably is a star party
Eric: where you can go and meet these individual people
Eric: who want nothing more than to share their fun with you.
Eric: Now with that said,
Eric: I wanna talk to you guys about what the future episodes
Eric: are gonna be like for back focus.
Eric: I wanna talk specifically about astronomy clubs,
Eric: observatories, telescope makers,
Eric: astrophotographers, outreach volunteers,
Eric: educators, beginners, experienced observers,
Eric: astronomy events, public star parties,
Eric: and all that kind of fun stuff.
Eric: While space news is interesting,
Eric: it's not the core of what astronomy is about.
Eric: The core of what astronomy is about
Eric: are the people behind the telescopes.
Eric: They are the ones that matter.
Eric: Their experience matters.
Eric: And you're the one who's out there
Eric: who's able to make their experience worth doing.
Eric: I can't tell you the number of times
Eric: I've almost given up and gone home without a picture.
Eric: And somebody else said, hey Eric,
Eric: hang on a second, let me give you a hand.
Eric: We were able to get my gear set up
Eric: and I was able to come out with a phenomenal photo.
Eric: That happens all the time.
Eric: And it's something I wanna see the rest of our groups do.
Eric: Invite each other to your clubs,
Eric: talk to them, help them through their problems,
Eric: and you know what, we're gonna have a community.
Eric: That's what this is all about.
Eric: So I want to invite you.
Eric: Are you part of an astronomy club?
Eric: Do you run a public outreach for astronomy?
Eric: Have you built your own telescope?
Eric: Have you built your own observatory?
Eric: Do you have access to a really cool one?
Eric: Do you have a story that's worth sharing?
Eric: I would love to have you on this show.
Eric: I wanna talk to you.
Eric: Thank you so much for listening
Eric: to my very first episode of Backfocus.
Eric: If you enjoyed today's episode,
Eric: please subscribe, share it with your astronomy club,
Eric: and help us build a stronger astronomy community.
Eric: Until next time, keep looking up and stay focused.