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.
J | F | N | F | Q | W | L | B | N |
M | X | B | K | F | L | H | W | F |
K | Q | G | O | H | A | U | J | B |
V | X | A | R | K | X | W | L | I |
D | I | I | J | S | R | K | U | T |
R | M | P | M | N | G | O | R | I |
D | Z | C | D | S | S | X | Y | X |
C | Z | L | P | S | Y | K | Q | D |
E | K | X | Z | J | Y | G | A | T |