For individuals who’ve had sufficient of scrolling AI slop, meet Picastro: an Instagram app for astrophotography.
Picastro is a devoted, mobile-first platform constructed for amateurs and execs who seize photographs of the evening sky. Launched late final 12 months by Tom McCrorie, an novice astrophotographer, the platform was designed to present celestial photographs 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 guide zooming, so each element will be appreciated as nature meant. For reference, Instagram at present helps as much as eight megabytes earlier than photographs are mechanically compressed.
Uploaded photographs will be tagged with a “StarCard,” a discipline the place photographers share key details about their shot—from telescope sort and digital camera mannequin to filters used and ISO settings.
As an alternative of counting on an algorithm or suggestion engine to determine which photographs get seen, customers vote on their favourite photographs through the use of a system of stars and trophies. The photographs with essentially 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 primarily based on completely different expertise, gear manufacturers, celestial targets, or expertise ranges.
The app presents 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.
In the event you ever want a reminder that social media is faux and we stay on a floating rock, simply obtain the app and have a scroll.
