#42 - "Connect the Dots"

[TMart]

I connected all four bottom stars into a box and sent in Ursa Minor. There is also a fifth star that could be put above the grid at 13D on TED to get “started”, so that threw me as well. Had the idea but don’t know my constellations well enough.

[Dplass]

I really don't like puzzles where the answer isn't spelled out in the puzzle itself... one has to know Cassiopeia...

[Hector]

It took me a long time to see the star crossings, and after spotting the first I thought that might be all and almost submitted "Northern Cross". But that didn't seem pgw-clever, so I kept looking. Having finally seen the others, the "connect the dots" title seemed very likely to indicate a constellation or other star pattern. Googling "five star constellation" gives Cassiopeia as the first link hit, and the first image hit confirms the pattern.

[Beth Tyrpin]

I google five star constellation to get to Cassiopeia also. I can see how the Big Dipper shape was easy to visualize.

[pgw]

the vibe here seemed to be that this puzzle was doable, which is not a word I would use to describe any meta that involves knowing the shapes of constellations... Honestly, even if I had figured out the STAR trick, there was no way I would've known that was Cassiopeia, and it's a toss up whether I would've been able to successfully search it on Google.

I'm sorry you didn't like this one. I did realize that not everyone knows the shapes of constellations - my hope was that if you found the stars, even if you had zero constellation knowledge you could Google e.g. : constellation with five stars" which will turn up cassiopeia, and a picture of its recognizable W shape, as a top result.

Hope this weeks is more fun for you!

[damefox]

I'm sorry you didn't like this one. I did realize that not everyone knows the shapes of constellations - my hope was that if you found the stars, even if you had zero constellation knowledge you could Google e.g. : constellation with five stars" which will turn up cassiopeia, and a picture of its recognizable W shape, as a top result.

Hope this weeks is more fun for you!

To be fair to you, Cassiopeia is one of the more well-known constellations, so it wasn't crazy to assume people would know it. The only two I know are Ursa Minor and Orion. The larger issue for me though was not seeing the STAR trick.

Still working on this week's!