Ok what I described on the last page as an anomaly on the planet in the composite in the ships taking off sequence appears to actually be a layer of clouds added optically over and around the planet which is absent on the GOUT and Technidisc composite.
These JSC transfer screenshots is not in that good quality and have some clipping of the reds, so I'm not sure how visible it is.
first frame:
in the fourth frame a layer of clouds appear around and over the planet:
pretty nice and subtle effect which adds to the scene I think, it seems they had a lot of trouble with this sequence as the other version have an optical glitch on the ships whereas this one have the glitch with the clouds missing for the first few frames.
Edit:
So far I've discovered that this version of the effect shot is seen in:
- 16mm English (PuggoGrande)
- pre-ANH widescreen bootleg (mthr)
- pre-ANH bootleg 'PS77-78?' (AntcuFaalb)
- NTSC home video versions '82 - '92
The other version is seen in:
- SWE (Technidisc)
- DC/FACES/GOUT
- Negative 1's 35mm print