One Year of Learning PixInsight: It's Not as Highbrow and Inaccessible as You'd Think

A year ago, I completed and published my first work using PixInsight. Looking back now, it’s been exactly one year since I started learning PI, and the hours I’ve put into study and practice over that year should by now add up to well over a hundred.

In the community, I used to often hear people say PixInsight was “highbrow and appreciated by few,” as though it were a toy for a select minority. But after actually putting in the time to use it, I found this is not the case—plenty of amateur astronomy enthusiasts abroad use it, and often alongside Photoshop (or similar PS software). It’s not software that admires only itself in isolation; it’s a tool that has already been widely adopted.

This year of learning has let me gradually grow familiar with the many processing tools in PixInsight designed specifically for astronomical images. These tools have saved me a great deal of time I would otherwise have wasted—many things that take a big roundabout effort to barely pull off in general-purpose image software often have a more direct, more to-the-point approach in PI.

As for why quite a few enthusiasts still find this software hard to learn? By my own reckoning, there are a few main reasons:

1. Being unwilling to spend money on the software.
2. Feeling that the software they were already used to is good enough.
3. Having no time to shoot, and so having no images on hand to practice with.
4. The teaching materials and courses being almost all in English, which they can’t understand—and being unable to find suitable Chinese materials.
5. Taiwan’s users being mostly advanced players, so that when beginners run into problems, there is often no one around to discuss and work things out with.

Among these, points 1 and 3 are more a matter of personal choice, but points 2, 4, and 5 can in fact be improved with some effort.

So this year, besides continuing to study PixInsight while also learning other image-processing software, I’ve started making some tutorial videos, hoping to do my bit for points 2, 4, and 5—to let those still on the fence know that advanced tools are worth a try, to give those who can’t read English materials some Chinese resources to consult, and to keep beginners from fighting on alone.

If you’re interested in astronomical image processing, you’re very welcome to join the ranks of PixInsight users. The path may seem steep at first, but having walked it for a year, I can say this: it’s far more approachable than you’d imagine.