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Imperial Star Destroyers are seen in all three movies of the original trilogy. The progenitor of the Star Destroyer, the Acclamator, was seen in the second movie, Attack of the Clones.
This document covers the definitive version of the type, the Imperial Star Destroyer, which is sometimes called either Imperial-class or Imperator-class. It is the premier class of medium starship in the Imperial Starfleet in the Star Wars universe. All known variants are 1,609 meters long (approximately one mile) and have three large and four small engines capable of accelerating the ship with a force of several thousand g.
According to officially available statistics, Imperial Star Destroyers have at least 37000 officers and crew. Counting the stormtrooper complement (one "division" or "legion", 9700 men) would total 46700. This would include a stormtrooper detachment, fighter pilots, and support craft pilots.
For those vessels that entered New Republic service, the New Republic reduced the crew requirements by 8000, to about 28000 men.
By SW standards, the crew requirements of the Imperator are extraordinarily high. New Republic ships of the closest size tend to have a small fraction of the crew. It is also interesting to note the ISD's high ratio (over 7:1) between Full and Skeleton complement - a more usual ratio seems to be 4:1 or 5:1 in large Star Wars vessels.
Possible reasons include:
From film canon and model observations, the first flight of ships (generally known as the Imperator-I or Imperial-I) possessed a main battery of 12 heavy turbolasers and 4 heavy ion cannon for disabling enemy warships. Those heavy guns were set in twin mounts flanking the tower structure. The second flight of ships (generally known as the Imperator-II or Imperial-II) possessed a main battery of 64 heavy turbolasers in eight octuple mounts flanking the tower structure. Furthermore, each brim notch in the trench could be fitted with a quadruple heavy turbolaser. Several official estimates (most notably, Star Wars Attack of the Clones: Incredible Cross Sections) indicate that each heavy turbolaser possesses more firepower than the combined historical nuclear arsenal of Earth. However, as these numbers have never been directly demonstrated in the movies, there is some disagreement as to their validity.
Strangely, the Imperials in either subclass did not choose to give their turrets superfiring ability from a level position, either by superelevating the after turrets or merely by spacing them out over a longer distance and letting the natural wedge shape provide the ability. Perhaps superelevation proved impossible with the immense recoils involved (official estimates imply yields so great that the momentum of the fired bolts, and the associated recoil, would be comparable to a large asteroid impact), and perhaps spacing the turrets out proved too great a compromise in terms of power distribution.
As an aside, the RPG has also made a statistic set for the two subclasses, but they seem highly inaccurate in both numbers and magnitude when compared to the film - the highest canon.
Numerous smaller guns were mounted around the ship to ward off attacks against lesser ships not capable of being targeted by the main battery. They varied in size; some were designed as point-defense cannon to destroy incoming missiles and starfighters while others engaged lesser capital ships. Several examples have been explicitly equipped with proton torpedoes, most notably NRS Emancipator (ex-HIMS Accusor) and HIMS Chimaera. However, it is not known whether or not they are refit additions or not.