We recently caught up with Tom McCrorie, founder of the Picastro app and a lifelong astronomy enthusiast, shares the personal journey and inspiration that led him to create a dedicated social platform for astrophotographers and space lovers. McCrorie discusses how his early fascination with the night sky, reignited by a birthday gift telescope, evolved into a passion for imaging and sharing the cosmos. Frustrated by mainstream social media’s limitations, compression, and distractions, he envisioned Picastro as a clean, intuitive, and respectful space where beginners and experts alike could connect, learn, and showcase high-resolution astrophotography without bots, ads, or gatekeeping.
Below, he explains the specific challenges faced by amateur astronomers, the equipment that shaped his design choices, and his vision for Picastro’s role in the astronomy community over the next five years, highlighting upcoming features like video shorts and the BEKAH AI helper. McCrorie also opens up about the technical side of app development, lessons learned, and his heartfelt advice to newcomers entering the hobby.
McCrorie: My name is Tom McCrorie and I live on the West Coast of Scotland in a town called Prestwick with my wife, daughter and little teacup Yorkie. I’m a branding strategist and brand designer and a passionate amateur astronomer and astrophotographer. I have run my own design business since 2007 and the tech startup Picastro Global since 2022, of which the Picastro App is the first product out of the gate and launched in October 2024.
McCrorie: Like most people in this hobby, I have always had a passion for the night sky and growing up in a semi-rural location meant I was lucky to be able to see the night sky with little light pollution, at the time probably B3 now closer to B5.
But when I was nine we moved away to a suburban and densely populated area, but I always continued to have an interest in the subject matter. Heck, my bedroom wallpaper was artist impressions of the space station and passenger carrying rocket ships in space.
Move on a few years and life stuff gets in the way, but in 2019 just before Covid hit, my wife gave me a little reflector telescope for a special birthday and that completely reignited my passion for the cosmos once again. I am pretty sure she is regretting that decision now, as she rarely sees me when I am imaging or getting involved in astro related subject matter. But I love to share my space images (warts and all) and the only place to share them at the time was instagram, Facebook and X but we all know how those platforms are non conducive with our astronomy hobby for the reasons I will highlight below.
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McCrorie: When I was starting out in my journey of astrophotography I looked around a lot. but I couldn’t find a dedicated social media platform for sharing high-resolution astrophotography in a simple, intuitive way. Sure, there’s AstroBin, Cloudy Nights, Telescopius and a few more, and I use some of them, but they’re either overly complex, clunky, or just not built with an authentic social experience in mind or the modern way we engage and interact with each other.
AstroBin felt so overwhelming when I was starting out. Of course it’s a repository for storing images and not a native app anyway so that was out. Telescopius is brilliant for planning, but it doesn’t feel like a social space. And Cloudy Nights? It’s a forum from a different era, not mobile-friendly and hard to navigate. Like 86% of the world, I use my phone for everything and those platforms don’t feel intuitive to sharing images like you would on a regular social media app.
On top of that, mainstream social media has become a mess a complete bin fire, fake accounts, spam, bots, and now, AI-generated space images getting more engagement than the real ones taken by actual astrophotographers. That was the final straw.
So, I built Picastro, It’s like Instagram for space nerds but with no compression. No bots. No ads and no spam. Just a clean, respectful space to share the night sky the way it deserves to be seen and I wanted to make sure it was a native mobile and tablet platform, something the other platforms are missing.
McCrorie: The compression and the user experience was a big thing for me. I wanted to make sure what ever was designed and developed felt modern, intuitive and easy for beginners and experts alike. So I created the platform to have features that we could all appreciate. No matter what stage of the journey in the hobby.
McCrorie: I started out small, and before I knew it my home office is filled with anything from a 2m fl Meade to my workhorse the Skywatcher 200P. I have way too many mounts to mention and my main source of imaging which is my 533MMPro with some narrowband and broadband filters. I really love the ZWO eco system, so simplicity and ease of use is imbued in to the very purpose for the platform. To be able post a hi res image in a really intuitive way without the barriers and with features and content relevant to your space images. To have our images protected was also super important as a lot of people steal data and pretend it belongs to them. Not nice to see but it happens.
McCrorie: I made so many errors whilst learn gin the equipment and made so many mistakes processing the images. So I craved simplicity and a place to share my journey and experiences without the gatekeeping normally associated with the hobby. It was important to me to make the app feel inclusive and Picastro celebrates this in abundance.
McCrorie: Great question, I have outlined each of them below.
Who they are: This person has a decent telescope set up (maybe even two) in their garden or balcony or maybe even have a remote set up too and spends hours imaging deep-sky objects, planets, or the Moon. They’ve invested in decent kit, love tinkering with gear, and post-process their images with pride.
Frustrations: Astrophotographers are tired of compression ruining their images on Instagram or Facebook. They also want genuine feedback from people who know were empathetic to their stage of the process, they don’t want bots and fakery. Picastro is not about likes and follows. It’s about genuine community and learning.
Why they love Picastro: Zero compression. No algorithms. A respectful, astro-focused community that actually understands the effort behind every image. StarCards© and SetUps let them proudly show off their rig with ease. Video Shorts (launching 12th July 2025) will allow them to record and share video content with users on the app too.
Who they are: Someone just starting on their journey into astronomy and astrophotography. Maybe they got a telescope as a gift or started with a smartphone and tripod. They’re keen to learn and improve but often feel intimidated on bigger platforms so don’t want to share their images.
Frustrations: Forums are overwhelming. Facebook groups feel gatekept. They want a safe space to ask questions, post early attempts of their images, and feel encouraged, not judged.
Why they love Picastro: It’s welcoming, beginner-friendly, and focused on progress over perfection. The NASA-style badges, BEKAH AI helper (coming end of they year), and community vibe make them feel part of something from day one.
Who they are: Not an imager (yet), but absolutely fascinated by space and beautiful astro images. They follow space news, love amazing space images and know white difference between a fat AI and a real space image, and want a distraction-free place to explore real astronomy content.
Frustrations: They’re overwhelmed and frustrated by AI-generated images, adverts, and non-space content on social media. They want an escape, a genuine place to enjoy real astrophotography and real people.
Why they love Picastro: They can explore at their own pace, discover real images taken by real people, and learn more about space without the inherent noise that you find on existing social media apps. Eventually, they might even become an imager themselves.
McCrorie: This is actually the second iteration of the app. I started to develop it at the start using React Native and it ended up that that platform wasn’t beneficial to the app at all. The app is built in Flutter which is amazingly flexible for both iOS and Android. I use AWS to serve all of the hi resolution images and Firebase for the conversations. These are all super secure and make the app super fast for loading times etc. The flexibility and longevity of the app was more important to me.
McCrorie: Great question. Oh my goodness, probably underestimating how long the build phase would actually take.
McCrorie: Over the next five years, we see Picastro becoming the natural home for anyone who loves the night sky, whether you're just snapping your first Moon shot or pulling hours of data from a deep-sky target.
As mainstream platforms fill up with AI-generated nonsense, low-res uploads, and bots, Picastro stands its ground. No algorithms. No compression. No fakery. Just a clean, dedicated space to share the real thing, and we all celebrate the effort behind it.
I remember what it’s like to feel lost in forums or intimidated by seasoned pros. That’s why Picastro is built to encourage progress, not perfection. From your first blurry Jupiter to your best nebula stack, everything here has a place, and a badge.
I want it to be a way connect with other space nerds. Whether it’s local StarCamps, downloadable Starcards, gear Setups, or just geeking out over someone’s workflow, Picastro will make it even easier to connect with other space-loving humans, no gatekeeping, no egos, just shared passion.
With features like BEKAH (Brilliantly Excellent and Knowledgeable Astronomy Helper) coming this year, curated insights, and tips from expert imagers across the world, Picastro is quietly becoming a space to get better at what you do, without needing to wade through noise, bots, spam and fake accounts.
And as AI images take over the internet, Picastro will keep championing the real ones, taken by real people, under real skies. Picastro is where authenticity matters.
In short, we’re building Picastro to be the platform we always wished existed. Simple and intuitive and made for beginners and experts. Built by space nerds. For space nerds. And in five years? We want it to be the one place every astro-curious person ends up.
If I could sum up the app it would be:
McCrorie: Be patient and enjoy the hobby, it can be frustrating, particularly learing the equipment and the software to process the images. Only compare your images to your own progress, not anyone else’s. I used to compare my own images starting out to all of the amazing and wonderful space images out there. But looking back that wasn’t the best thing to do. Now I monitor my own progress, but still admiring all of the other amazing images.
Tom McCrorie is a creative director, entrepreneur, and founder based in Prestwick, Scotland. With over 25 years of experience, Tom is known for his strategic, people-centered approach to branding, design, and digital communication. Through his studio atom, he has helped global brands, startups, and public sector clients create meaningful brand systems and digital products. Tom also founded Picastro, an ad-free social platform for astrophotographers and space enthusiasts to share high-resolution images and connect without distractions. His work often merges his design expertise with his passion for astronomy, as seen in his self-published Moon project and the community-driven focus of Picastro. Tom’s commitment to clarity, purpose, and genuine user respect defines both his client work and personal projects. He lives in Scotland with his wife, daughter, and teacup Yorkie, drawing inspiration from the Bortle 5 skies above.
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