Genuine question: does the FOV of the shot indicate that Yavin IV would be visible from the Death Star? An observer watching from a third point in space (like the camera here) might be able to look on either side of the Yavin gas giant to see both objects, but they might not be able able to see each other nonetheless.
This is probably correct, especially considering how objects in space (especially in Star Wars) can be hard to judge w/r/t/ distance.
Looking at the tweet that .gif came from, apparently someone made the case in the responses, too
https://twitter.com/Nexahs/status/1247571888462848002
Eh. I don’t know. For me the most questionable thing in the shot is how the gas giant behind the X-Wings looks like it’s made of play-doh.
But if you really pay attention, you can deduce that the Death Star does, indeed have a clear line-of-sight shot in that… shot. Yes the camera pans around and whatnot, but look specifically at the relation of Yavin, the ships, and the Death Star to one another. Thanks the the way the camera does move, we can see that the ships appear to be traveling in a straight line, that Yavin is directly behind them, and that the Death Star is directly in front of them. Connect the dots and you have a straight line from Death Star to rebel base with no pesky gas giant to block the laserblast…