Two galaxies aligned in a way where their gravity acts as a compound lens

One fun thing think about is that these two galaxies are only aligned from our perspective in the universe. Viewed from a different location, and they're just two normal galaxies.

Also, imagine having the technology to send signals through the lens and get the attention of intelligent life on the other side.

I’m sure there are plenty of civilizations that have done this, but on the time scale of the universe no one happens to look at just the right moment.

But wouldn't the size and age of the universe also imply that someone has looked at just the right moment somewhere somewhen.

Don’t radio waves weaken proportionally to the square of the distance? No one would be able to detect them past a (relatively) small distance.

Omnidirectional source, yes.

However, beamed sources don't fall off that way.

A search for optical laser emission from Alpha Centauri AB - https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/516/2/2938/6668809

> ... This search would have revealed optical laser light from the directions of Alpha Cen B if the laser had a power of at least 1.4–5.4 MW (depending on wavelength) and was positioned within the 1 arcsec field of view (projecting to 1.3 au), for a benchmark 10-m laser launcher

For comparison, with our measly human technology...

https://www.ukri.org/news/uk-science-facility-receives-85m-f...

> The Vulcan 20-20 laser is so named because it will generate a main laser beam with an energy output of 20 Petawatts (PW) alongside eight high energy beams with an output of up to 20 Kilojoules (KJ). This is a 20-fold increase in power which is expected to make it the most powerful laser in the world.

Or even five decades ago (TODAY!) ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arecibo_message

> The entire message consisted of 1,679 binary digits, approximately 210 bytes, transmitted at a frequency of 2,380 MHz and modulated by shifting the frequency by 10 Hz, with a power of 450 kW.

https://www.seti.org/seti-institute/project/details/arecibo-...

> The broadcast was particularly powerful because it used Arecibo's megawatt transmitter attached to its 305 meter antenna. The latter concentrates the transmitter energy by beaming it into a very small patch of sky. The emission was equivalent to a 20 trillion watt omnidirectional broadcast, and would be detectable by a SETI experiment just about anywhere in the galaxy, assuming a receiving antenna similar in size to Arecibo's.