I recently used simulate_psf to simulate the PSF for HETG observations, with 1/8th native bin size. With the default parameter of numsig=7 this creates a huge(!) image file for the PSF (65GB). This slows down the PSF creation a lot and the file cannot be handled after. Changing to numsig=1 reduced the computation time and file size a lot (<1GB). However in my case I was only interested I the zero order PSF so it is still too large. Also in the case of HETG observations the numsig parameter is very unintuitive.
As there already exist a minsize parameter I would suggest to introduce a maxsize parameter as well, which overrides the numsig when defined. This would allow me to choose the PSF size independently of the containment.
I recently used
simulate_psfto simulate the PSF for HETG observations, with 1/8th native bin size. With the default parameter ofnumsig=7this creates a huge(!) image file for the PSF (65GB). This slows down the PSF creation a lot and the file cannot be handled after. Changing tonumsig=1reduced the computation time and file size a lot (<1GB). However in my case I was only interested I the zero order PSF so it is still too large. Also in the case of HETG observations thenumsigparameter is very unintuitive.As there already exist a
minsizeparameter I would suggest to introduce amaxsizeparameter as well, which overrides thenumsigwhen defined. This would allow me to choose the PSF size independently of the containment.