1. Introduction
   1. The quantum nature of light
   2. Photometric concepts and radiometric quantities
      • General definitions
      • Spectral or monochromatic quantities
      • Usages in engineering and astrophysics
      • Point sources and extended sources
   3. Natural sources of diffuse illumination
   4. Detectors
      • The ideal detector
      • The common detector and its characteristic parameters
      • Geometrical properties
      • Spectral and dynamical properties
      • Temporal properties
      • Noise
   5. The most versatile detector of light images
   6. Ancient catalogue
   7. Definition of the magnitude scale
   8. The perception of colors
   9. Colors and visual observations
   10. Major sources of errors in ancient visual observations
   11. Magnitude
   12. Magnitude systems
   13. Bolometric magnitude
   14. Apparent and absolute magnitudes
   15. Color index
   16. Characteristics of the photometric response curve
2. The telescope
   1. Types
   2. Requirements and specifications
      • F-ratio
      • Scale in the focal plane
      • Size of the telescope
      • Stability of mount
      • Accuracy of tracking
      • Traking of moving objects
      • Setting
      • Offset guiding
      • Optics
      • Automated versus manuel telescopes
3. Photoelectric photometers
   1. Types of photoelectric photometers
   2. The sequential photometer
   3. The simultaneous photometer
   4. The multi-star photometer
4. The photomultiplier
   1. The photoelectric effect
   2. Types of photomultipliers
   3. The essential parts of a photomultiplier tube
      • The glass housing
      • The photocathode
      • The dynodes
   4. Anode current and its measurement
   5. Characteristics of photomultipliers
      • Sensitivity, amplification and drift
      • Dark current
      • Dead time
5. Photometric filters
   1. Fundamental characteristics
   2. Gelatin filters
   3. Glass filters
   4. Interference filters
   5. Custom-design filters
   6. Image-quality filters
   7. Neutral-density filters
   8. Circular variable filters
6. Atmospheric extinction
   1. Absorption, scattering and dispersion of light
   2. Monochromatic extinction
   3. Definition of the air mass
   4. Calculation of the air mass
      • Heterochromatic extinction
      • Second-order coefficient
      • A rigorous second-order method
   5. Conclusions
7. Atmospheric turbulence: scintillation and seeing
   1. Scintillation
   2. Seeing
8. Color transformation
   1. Introduction
   2. Narrow-band photometry
      • Blackbody radiation
      • Other spectral distributions
   3. The general color-transformation problem
9. Interstellar extinction
   1. Monochromatic extinction
      • Reddening vector
      • Color excess
      • Reddening-free indices
   2. Wide-band extinction
10. Principle of data analysis
    1. Introduction
       • Old or new style reductions
       • Fitting a model
    2. Monochromatic photometry
       • The multi-night technique: an intuitive view
       • The simplest multi-night case
       • Bouguer's law for several stars
       • Variable extinction
       • Unstable instrumentation
       • Normalization to a standard scale
       • On the meaning of the function phi
    3. Multifilter photometry
       • Narrow-band multifilter photometry
       • Color transformations
       • Wide-band multifilter photometry
       • Fractioning the standard set
       • Diaphram effects
       • Bright and faint stars
    4. General remarks
    5. Examples of reduction algorithms
11. Homogenization
    1. Introduction
    2. Conformity
    3. Homogenization
    4. Merging data from a simple system
    5. Conclusions
12. Infrared photometry
    1. Introduction
    2. Chopping and nodding
    3. The detector
    4. The photometer
    5. Observation and reduction of infrared data
    6. Day-time observing
13. Charge-coupled devices
    1. Introduction
    2. The detector
    3. The camera
    4. Characteristics of CCDs
    5. Extraction of data from a frame
    6. Aperture photometry
    7. Profile fitting
       • The point-spread function
       • Analytic or empirical PSF
       • Stellar photometry using the PSF
    8. Extinction
    9. Color transformation
14. Photographic photometry
    1. Introduction
    2. The photographic emulsion as a storage medium
    3. The characteristic curve
    4. Post-observational processing of plates and films
    5. Calibration of digitally recorded photographic densities
    6. Photometric analysis of photographic intensities
15. The observations
    1. Introduction
    2. Preparing the observing run
       • Feasibility of the programme
    3. Programme scheduling
       • Absolute photometry
       • Differential photometry
       • Spurious frequencies
    4. Evaluation of the quality of the signal for non-imaging detectors
    5. Noise and error on sky background
    6. Some pratical hints
       • Instrument checking
       • Control of seeing
       • Sky background measurements
       • Focal-plane diaphragm
       • Front diaphragm
       • Dead time
16. Photometric systems
    1. Introduction
    2. The visual system
    3. Photographic systems
    4. Photoelectric systems
       • The Johnson-Morgan UBV(RI)
       • The infrared JHKLM system
       • The Geneva UBVB1 B2 V1 G system
       • The Walraven VBLUW system
       • The Stromgren ubvy Beta system
       • H alpha systems
       • The WF/PC filter system of the Hubble Space Telescope
       • The IHW filter system for cometary research
    5. Absolute calibration
    6. Appendix A. References
    7. Appendix B. Glossary
    8. Appendix C. Symbols and notations
    9. Appendix D. Index