Wait, actually, I’m supposed to make the Death Star survive ANH. I think that’s gonna necessitate a custom explosion that leaves it partially intact.
You could replace the Death Star explosion with the explosion of Krypton from Man of Steel. That explosion shows the planet breaking into chunks rather than disintegrating, and there’s a giant crater in the wreckage that looks similar to the Death Star superlaser. I remember seeing another edit that used that explosion, and it looked pretty good.