THE POINT-SPREAD FUNCTION OF THE SOFT-X-RAY TELESCOPE ABOARD YOHKOH

The point spread function of the SXT telescope aboard Yohkoh has been measured in flight configuration in three different X-ray lines at Whi te Sands Missile Range. We have fitted these data with an elliptical g eneralization of the Moffat function. Our fitting method consists of c hi(2) minimization in Fourier space, especially designed for matching of sharply peaked functions. We find excellent fits with a reduced chi (2) of order unity or less for single exposure point spread functions over most of the CCD. Near the edges of the CCD the fits are less accu rate due to vignetting. From fitting results with summation of multipl e exposures we find a systematic error in the fitting function of the order of 3% near the peak of the point spread function, which is close to the photon noise for typical SXT images in orbit. We find that the full width to half maximum and fitting parameters vary significantly with CCD location. However, we also find that point spread functions m easured at the same location are consistent to one another within the limit determined by photon noise. A 'best' analytical fit to the PSF a s function of position on the CCD is derived for use in SXT image enha ncement routines. As an aside result we have found that SXT can determ ine the location of point sources to about a quarter of a 2.54 are sec pixel.