The main purpose of this painting was to capture the atmosphere of the battle
over this monstrous space station.
The open core apparent in the Death Star structure represented McQuarrie's
concept of a laser cannon: a large power source, accelerators and condensers
would all collect around the core, focus their terrific energy, and fire out
through the bottom. At other times, spacecraft could come and go through the
top. In the film however, the planet-destroying laser beam was focused through
a dish-shaped structure on the Death Star surface.
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(Last updated at: 980414)