So here are a few suggestions for references,

1. Image processing in Astronomy, eds. G.Sedmark, M.Capaccioli, R.J. Allen,
                                     Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste,1979.

2. Pratt, W.K.,1978. "Digital Image Processing", Wiley-Interscience, New York.

3. Ford, W.K., 1979. "Digital imaging techniques." ARRA, vol 17, p198.

4. Bracewell, R., 1979. "Computer image processing." ARRA, vol 17, p113.

5. Image Processing Techniques in Astronmony, eds. C. de Jager and H.
                                       Nieuwenhuyzen , Reidel. Dordrecht, 1975.

6. International Workshop on Image Processing in Astronomy, eds. G. Sedmak, M.
                                         Capaccioli, R.J. Allen, Trieste, 1979.

7. Rosenfeld, A., Kak, A.C., 1982. "Digital Image Processing Vol 1-2", Academic
                                       Press, New York.

A very nice guide to observational techniques in astronomy (and which covers
the measurement and processing of astronomical signals) is

Pierre Lena (translated by A. King), 1988. "Observational Astrophysics",
                           Astronomy and Astrophysics Library, Springer-Verlag.

There is a multitude of reduction software (both spectroscopic and photmetric)
currently in use. The European Southern Observatory has produced (and are still
developing) the Munich Image and Data Analysis System (MIDAS). The manuals that
accompany it are a particularly informative introduction on (at least) the
theory behind image processing and provide numerous (often relevant)
references. You can make your inquries to

The Image Processing Group
European Southern Observatory
Karl-Schwarzchild-Str.2
D-8046 Garching bei Munchen
Fed. Rep. of Germany. (or is it just Germany now?)

Note that the chapter on computational methods from the MIDAS manual is
available
in "Selected Topics on Data Analysis in Astronomy", eds. V. Di Gesu, L. Scarsi
and P. Crane, World Scientific Publishing, 1987. The author is Preben Grosbol.

One North_American reduction package is IRAF. I know nothing about this
package except that apparently it's not user-friendly (actually I doubt if any
of the reduction packages are). I see that one of the replies to the original
request gives an ftp site for it (and DAOPHOT).

DAOPHOT was developed by Peter Stetson especially for
crowded field photometry. Quite extensive documentation is available in the
literature (and a good starting point is

Stetson, P.B.,1987. Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific,
v99, p191.


With respect to the astrometric question; see

King,I.G, 1983. Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, v95
                                                                          ,p163

Some other papers by authors that were/are involved in image reduction
(in particular the fitting of Point Spread Functions(PSFs) to data profiles)

1. Moffat,A.F.J.,1969. Astronomy and Astrophysics, vol3, p455.

2. Bendinelli et al.,1988. Journal of Astrophysics and Astronomy, vol 9, p17.

3. Djorgovski,S.,1983. Journal of Astrophysics and Astronomy, vol 4, p271.

4. Buonanno,R. et al.,1983. Astronomy and Astrophysics, vol.126, p278.

These lists are by no means comprehensive, but they should provide a pretty
broad introduction and should give a number of cross references.

Just a little light-hearted warning. You'll be suprised at how much data a
little wafer of doped silicon can produce (a 384x576 pixel array can produce
about a 1/2Mb per image). If you get into the reduction and analysis of CCD
images be particularly nice to your systems operator; with memory and hardware
requirements you'll be seeing him/her rather frequently.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
steve west,                internet...  phys173@canterbury.ac.nz
physics dept.,             telephone..  +64 3 642539
uni. of canterbury,
NEW ZEALAND.