The Telescope

The large grid celebrates three moments in telescope history. Each circular clue must be assigned to exactly one of the following three puzzles, though it might also be a valid clue in another:

  • Galileo Discovers Saturn’s Rings: Draw a closed path within the grid through some of the large dots, following Masyu rules but also alternating dot colors between black and white.
  • Messier Catalogs the First-known Galaxies: Fill the grid with Spiral Galaxies, where a dot of either size is at the 180-degree rotational center of each galaxy but also where orthogonally-adjacent galaxies must have centers of different colors.
  • MAGIC Detects Gamma-ray Bursts in the Crab Nebula: Place a digit 1-9 in each grid cell to form a dots-optional Kropki Sudoku using some of the small dots, but also form a 3x3 magic square in three of the nine 3x3 boxes. Not all edges that could have dots will in fact have dots.

The puzzle below is interactive and supports undo/redo. No validation will be performed. You can also print this page for a low-ink/toner version.

  • Enter Masyu mode by typing M or clicking the purple (top) button. In this mode, draw a path by dragging from one cell to another, or by holding Shift and using the arrow keys.
  • Enter Galaxies mode by typing G or clicking the green (middle) button. In this mode, color cells by clicking them (or right/Shift-clicking them), or with Space/Shift-Space. You can drag the mouse to color multiple cells.
  • Enter Kropki Sudoku mode by typing K or clicking the gray (bottom) button. In this mode, type any digit, or hold Shift while typing to toggle candidate digits.
  • You can color the outer ring of a clue to match the current mode by Ctrl-clicking on it, or use Ctrl-Space and Ctrl-arrows.
  • You can use WASD in place of the arrow keys (which will be necessary on a Mac since Ctrl-arrows are undetectable)
  • You can undo with Ctrl+Z and redo with Ctrl+Y.

When all three puzzles are solved, proceed clockwise along the path, and for every cell along the path that is in a galaxy with a black center, shift the corresponding letter in the grid below by the digit in the Sudoku. The starting point is for you to determine.

JFNFQWLBN
MXBKFLHWF
KQGOHAUJB
VXARKXWLI
DIIJSRKUT
RMPMNGORI
DZCDSSXYX
CZLPSYKQD
EKXZJYGAT