What if the Empire invaded modern day Earth?

[D.Turtle]

The only problem there is that it seems to put them both on the same side of the planet!

That is what cam to my mind right away when I saw your figure.

60° seems way too high. I mean, when you take a picture with a camera (or record) without zooming in, you still only get a tiny part of your total vision. 10° or so would probably be closer, but then you again have the problem that tiny differences in the estimated vie field will result in huge differences in the distance estimated.

I think such a method simply doesn't work.

The problem is the visual. The x-wings are leaving the moon, one of them is almost exactly lined up with its back to it. And they are going toward the Death Star, lined up straight to it. Maybe they happened to turn as the camera rotated? Several of them do appear to be rounding a corner.

Well, they are moving around a gas giant, turning would be expected.

I see where you're coming from. It's still based on a lot of assumptions, but none of the reasoning seems bad.

Thank you.

Oh one more thing: The part where the other pilot is worried about Luke smacking into the Death Star after firing his torpedoes if he goes in faster? Right behind the exhaust vent, the trench ends. The other pilot is probably worried that Luke will smack into that dead end because he doesn't have enough reaction time to pull up after firing.

[starslayer]

I think such a method simply doesn't work.

Yeah, without knowing what kind of magnification the camera has, finding its field of view is dicey at best. While you could make the assumption that for effects shots, the camera approximates what you'd see with your eye floating there, there's little justification for doing so. If you do run with that assumption, you end up with a field of about 50-60°. As a rough rule of thumb for apparent fields of view, consider this: a 40° apparent field of view looks like a pinhole, 50-60° is pretty average (it's about what you concentrate most on when looking at something), 70° is pretty wide, and 80° and up usually appears to fill your field of vision.

As an aside, assuming Yavin is about the same size as Jupiter is a good one. By a coincidence of gravity and gas properties, objects of Jupiter mass and above are all about the same size until you hit the dimmest red dwarfs.

[Dark Lord of the Bith]

The only problem there is that it seems to put them both on the same side of the planet!

That is what cam to my mind right away when I saw your figure.

60° seems way too high. I mean, when you take a picture with a camera (or record) without zooming in, you still only get a tiny part of your total vision. 10° or so would probably be closer, but then you again have the problem that tiny differences in the estimated vie field will result in huge differences in the distance estimated.

I think such a method simply doesn't work.

On the one hand, if we had a reasonable lower bound for the angle, we could get an estimate of an upper bound on the distance. It scales linearly, so a pi/30 angle gets that figure up to the 400,000 km ballpark, but I had no idea whether or not such a small angle was reasonable.

On the other hand, once we have a number, I would have to wonder just whose view it is? What camera are we measuring? The real world camera using scale models, or the in-universe camera of a man filming a documentary in a spacesuit or out a window? Or is it the eyeball-view of what we would see if we were in space watching it, which would probably be the best with regard to suspension of disbelief (though that would imply the larger angle)? The whole exercise seems futile to me (and not only because "It's just a show, I should really just relax."), because the very analysis of the screens of the movie shatters suspension of disbelief. And that, Mr. President, is why I feel that the canon policy should not count special and visual effects in the movies as "all-mighty" canon.

[FrankManic]

Vader would just blast our population centers from orbit until we surrendered unconditionally. I don't think we've got anything that could take down a Star Destroyer, they'd just swat our nukes if they didn't turbolaser the launch sites immediately on launch.

[Sela]

Have not read any of the topic. . . but there's a (funny) youtube clip (SFW) addressing this very topic!

He even says at 0:20 "Empire attack Earth!"

[Star Wars 888]

Vader would just blast our population centers from orbit until we surrendered unconditionally. I don't think we've got anything that could take down a Star Destroyer, they'd just swat our nukes if they didn't turbolaser the launch sites immediately on launch.

Did you read the OP?