For many who’ve had sufficient of scrolling AI slop, meet Picastro: an Instagram app for astrophotography.
Picastro is a dedicated, mobile-first platform constructed for amateurs and professionals who seize photos of the evening sky. Launched late final 12 months by Tom McCrorie, an amateur astrophotographer, the platform was designed to present celestial photos the house and pixels they deserve—and to supply customers a break from bots, algorithms, and shoddy AI-generated content material.
The platform helps JPEG information as much as 120 megabytes, permitting for high-resolution uploads and handbook zooming, so each element will be appreciated as nature supposed. For reference, Instagram at present helps up to eight megabytes earlier than pictures are mechanically compressed.
Uploaded photos will be tagged with a “StarCard,” a area the place photographers share key details about their shot—from telescope kind and digicam mannequin to filters used and ISO settings.
As an alternative of counting on an algorithm or suggestion engine to determine which photos get seen, customers vote on their favourite pictures through the use of a system of stars and trophies. The photographs with probably the most votes rise to the highest, and every week and month the top-voted entries are highlighted as “Picture of the Week” or “Picture of the Month.”
There’s additionally a social facet. Customers can join by way of “StarCamps”—subgroups inside the platform based mostly on completely different expertise, tools manufacturers, celestial targets, or expertise ranges.
The app gives a free plan, Curiosity, however full entry requires a subscription. Paid plans—Titan, Callisto, and Ganymede—vary from about $5 to $10 per 30 days and permit for extra uploads and bigger file sizes.
If you happen to ever want a reminder that social media is pretend and we stay on a floating rock, simply obtain the app and have a scroll.
