Astronomical Photometry

1 Introduction.- 1.1 The quantum nature of light.- 1.2 Photometric concepts and radiometric quantities.- 1.3 Natural sources of diffuse illumination.- 1.4 Detectors.- 1.5 The most versatile detector of light images.- 1.6 Ancient catalogues.- 1.7 Definition of the magnitude scale.- 1.8 The perception of colors.- 1.9 Colors and visual observations.- 1.10 Major sources of errors in ancient visual observations.- 1.11 Magnitude.- 1.12 Magnitude systems.- 1.13 Bolometric magnitude.- 1.14 Apparent and absolute magnitudes.- 1.15 Color index.- 1.16 Characteristics of the photometric response curve.- 2 The telescope.- 2.1 Types.- 2.2 Requirements and specifications.- 3 Photoelectric photometers.- 3.1 Types of photoelectric photometers.- 3.2 The sequential photometer.- 3.3 The simultaneous photometer.- 3.4 The multi-star photometer.- 4 The photomultiplier.- 4.1 The photoelectric effect.- 4.2 Types of photomultipliers.- 4.3 The essential parts of a photomultiplier tube.- 4.4 Anode current and its measurement.- 4.5 Characteristics of photomultipliers.- 5 Photometric filters.- 5.1 Fundamental characteristics.- 5.2 Gelatin filters.- 5.3 Glass filters.- 5.4 Interference filters.- 5.5 Custom-design filters.- 5.6 Image-quality filters.- 5.7 Neutral-density filters.- 5.8 Circular variable filters.- 6 Atmospheric extinction.- 6.1 Absorption, scattering and dispersion of light.- 6.2 Monochromatic extinction.- 6.3 Definition of the air mass.- 6.4 Calculation of the air mass.- 6.5 Heterochromatic extinction.- 6.6 Conclusions.- 7 Atmospheric turbulence: scintillation and seeing.- 7.1 Scintillation.- 7.2 Seeing.- 8 Color transformation.- 8.1 Introduction.- 8.2 Narrow-band photometry.- 8.3 The general color-transformation problem.- 9 Interstellar extinction.- 9.1 Monochromatic extinction.- 9.2 Wide-band extinction.- 10 Principles of data analysis.- 10.1 Introduction.- 10.2 Monochromatic photometry.- 10.3 Multifilter photometry.- 10.4 General remarks.- 10.5 Examples of reduction algorithms.- 11 Homogenization.- 11.1 Introduction.- 11.2 Conformity.- 11.3 Homogenization.- 11.4 Merging data from a single system.- 11.5 Conclusions.- 12 Infrared photometry.- 12.1 Introduction.- 12.2 Chopping and nodding.- 12.3 The detector.- 12.4 The photometer.- 12.5 Observation and reduction of infrared data.- 12.6 Day-time observing.- 13 Charge-coupled devices.- 13.1 Introduction.- 13.2 The detector.- 13.3 The camera.- 13.4 Characteristics of CCDs.- 13.5 Extraction of data from a frame.- 13.6 Aperture photometry.- 13.7 Profile fitting.- 13.8 Extinction.- 13.9 Color transformation.- 14 Photographic photometry.- 14.1 Introduction.- 14.2 The photographic emulsion as a storage medium.- 14.3 The characteristic curve.- 14.4 Post-observational processing of plates and films.- 14.5 Calibration of digitally recorded photographic densities.- 14.6 Photometric analysis of photographic intensities.- 15 The observations.- 15.1 Introduction.- 15.2 Preparing the observing run.- 15.3 Programme scheduling.- 15.4 Evaluation of the quality of the signal for non-imaging detectors.- 15.5 Noise and error on sky background.- 15.6 Some practical hints.- 16 Photometric systems.- 16.1 Introduction.- 16.2 The visual system.- 16.3 Photographic systems.- 16.4 Photoelectric systems.- 16.5 Absolute calibration.- Appendix A. References.- Appendix B. Glossary.- Appendix C. Symbols and notations.- Appendix D. Index.