psf_gui – Interactive PSF Explorer

Overview

psf_gui is an optional interactive desktop application for visually exploring Gaussian PSF models and fitting results. It is built with Python’s standard Tkinter library and ships as part of the rms-psfmodel package.

The GUI lets you interactively adjust PSF parameters (sigma, angle, offset, scale, background) and immediately see the resulting pixel-integrated image alongside the fitting residuals. It is intended as a diagnostic and educational tool rather than a batch analysis tool; for systematic characterization use characterize_gauss_fit instead.

Prerequisites

psf_gui requires a working Tcl/Tk installation. On most systems this is provided by the python3-tk package or equivalent:

Platform

Command

Debian / Ubuntu

sudo apt install python3-tk

Fedora / RHEL

sudo dnf install python3-tkinter

macOS (Homebrew Python)

Tk is bundled; no extra install needed

macOS (python.org installer)

Tk is bundled; no extra install needed

Windows

Tk is bundled with the official Python installer

Verify your installation by running:

python -c "import tkinter; tkinter._test()"

A small test window should appear.

Running

After installing rms-psfmodel, start the GUI with:

psf_gui

Or, if the src directory is on PYTHONPATH (development mode):

python -m psf_gui

Features

  • Real-time PSF rendering – adjusting any slider immediately re-renders the pixel-integrated Gaussian patch.

  • Background subtraction – polynomial background fitting with configurable degree and ignore-center region.

  • Noise simulation – add Gaussian noise to the synthetic PSF image and observe the effect on fitting accuracy.

  • Residual display – view the difference between the fitted model and the data after position optimization.

  • Parameter readout – fitted position, sigma, angle, and scale are displayed numerically alongside their true injected values.