EPIMETHEUS: Effective point spread function inferred from mosaics
- 1INAF, Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova
- 2Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia ‘Galileo Galilei’, Università di Padova
Abstract
Accurate knowledge of the point spread function (PSF) is essential for a wide range of astronomical applications, from astrometry to precision photometry. However, deriving a robust average effective PSF (ePSF) from astronomical mosaics is particularly challenging due to the superposition of exposures taken at different epochs, under different observing conditions, and with varying position angles (PAs). To address this issue, we present EPIMETHEUS , an open-source Python library designed to manage the entire ePSF construction workflow, from initial star selection to final model generation. Built with a modular architecture, EPIMETHEUS avoids black-box methodologies, ensuring full transparency and giving the user complete control over the stellar sample to use for the ePSF building to meet specific scientific requirements. The software can process multiple images or mosaics simultaneously to retrieve the ePSF, a crucial feature when individual fields lack a sufficient number of bright, unsaturated stars. Candidate stars can be automatically filtered based on the orientation and light concentration, with options for manually excluding stars through a semi-automatic visual inspection. Although EPIMETHEUS is specifically optimised to handle the roto-translation complexities inherent to multi-epoch mosaics, it is versatile and can be equally applied to derive ePSFs from simpler, single-orientation images where rotational corrections are not required. Finally, to demonstrate the software’s capabilities and provide an immediate resource, we release empirical ePSFs for standard HST and JWST filters across the COSMOS, UDS, Abell 2744, and GOODS-S fields.
Versions
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BibTeX
@article{benotto2026epimetheus,
title = {{EPIMETHEUS: Effective point spread function inferred from mosaics}},
author = {Pietro Benotto and Benedetta Vulcani and Vittoria Altomonte},
journal = {Astronomy \& Astrophysics},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1051/0004-6361/202660382},
url = {https://www.aanda.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202660382},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - EPIMETHEUS: Effective point spread function inferred from mosaics
AU - Pietro Benotto
AU - Benedetta Vulcani
AU - Vittoria Altomonte
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/29
JO - Astronomy & Astrophysics
DO - 10.1051/0004-6361/202660382
UR - https://www.aanda.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202660382
AB - Accurate knowledge of the point spread function (PSF) is essential for a wide range of astronomical applications, from astrometry to precision photometry. However, deriving a robust average effective PSF (ePSF) from astronomical mosaics is particularly challenging due to the superposition of exposures taken at different epochs, under different observing conditions, and with varying position angles (PAs). To address this issue, we present EPIMETHEUS , an open-source Python library designed to manage the entire ePSF construction workflow, from initial star selection to final model generation. Built with a modular architecture, EPIMETHEUS avoids black-box methodologies, ensuring full transparency and giving the user complete control over the stellar sample to use for the ePSF building to meet specific scientific requirements. The software can process multiple images or mosaics simultaneously to retrieve the ePSF, a crucial feature when individual fields lack a sufficient number of bright, unsaturated stars. Candidate stars can be automatically filtered based on the orientation and light concentration, with options for manually excluding stars through a semi-automatic visual inspection. Although EPIMETHEUS is specifically optimised to handle the roto-translation complexities inherent to multi-epoch mosaics, it is versatile and can be equally applied to derive ePSFs from simpler, single-orientation images where rotational corrections are not required. Finally, to demonstrate the software’s capabilities and provide an immediate resource, we release empirical ePSFs for standard HST and JWST filters across the COSMOS, UDS, Abell 2744, and GOODS-S fields.
SN - 0004-6361
SN - 1432-0746
ER -