I haven't posted in awhile because I had to send my GH3 in for repairs. I finally got them to replace the GH3 with a new one so I could resume my Astro Photography testing.

Panasonic has not said anything about the RAW stacking capabilities the GH3 has. In fact I didn’t even know it had it until I first got mine. However, I had a chance last night to really play around with it for Astro Photography.

Simply put. The in camera HDR and RAW Stacking could be game changers. The GH3 already beats every single APS-C camera on DXO mark Canon makes. Canon has been the defacto camera for AP for many years.

Here are some images and videos I took last night while the full moon was out.

The in camera RAW stacking that the GH3 offers could finally allow us to get impressive images in camera and without ever hooking up a computer to the scope. For me that is essential.

The big issue is that you simply must guide the scope. Trying to do it with tracking alone won’t work. Right now I can’t afford to guide so I did some testing with brighter objects.

Below is a single image that was produced in camera by stacking many RAW images from different areas of space together. The only thing I edited was that some of the stars show through the moon. However, I have posted the original out of camera RAW file if you want to play with it.

I took the image of Orion first and then stacked four quick exposures of the moon over it. It is really easy because the GH3 shows you the original RAW image with the live view super imposed over it.

 Here is another image where I stacked the moon together in five separate exposures.

 If I get enough money to guide then I will try stacking the same object over and over again on top of its self to reduce noise and to also reduce the effects of light pollution.

Here are some of the RAW files if you want to play around with them.

http://twills.fatcow.com/Share/GH3%20Stacking/