Anecdotes & Puzzles

The object of this astronomy-related word puzzle is to determine the two rhyming words answer from the clues provided. At least 50% of each word rhymes phonetically with the other. Though more than one answer is possible, I haven't thought of them, but you might.

Though clever answers are sought, some are a little corny. Occasionally, poetic license is used to flex the grammar rules. See some good examples below; I try to avoid bad examples. To provide some direction, the syllabic count for each word in the answer is shown in parenthesis, as well as a subjective index from 1 to 5 showing the relative level of difficulty with 5 being the most challenging. More than half are fairly easy.

Good Examples

(a) Lunar summer (1/1:1) June Moon (phonetic rhyme)

(b) Round eyepiece (1/3:3) circular ocular (descriptive)

Bad Examples

(c) Pink Floyd Album (3/4:3) "Astronomy Domini" (rhyme not strictly preserved)

(d) Old scintillating star (1/2:2) twinkle wrinkle (silly; forced)

(e) Birth of a star (3/2:2) fusion union (rhyme weak; obscure)

(f) Extended leave (of sorts) (4/2:2) Barlow furlough (very silly; obscure)

(g) Musical Sun (5/1:1) GONG song (very obscure)

Word Puzzle

(1) Sidewalk astronomy tool (1/1:1)

(2) US/USSR competition (1/1:1)

(3) Puzzling solar track (4/4:3)

(4) Pioneering moon rocket (2/2:2)

(5) Basement of stars (1/2:2)

(6) Zodiac names (2/4:4)

(7) German oculars (2/1:1)

(8) Human vessels (1/1:1)

(9) This dog means business (1/3:3)

(10) Bear at the stream (2/2:2)

(11) Milky Way (3/2:3)

(12) Supernova sequence (3/3:3)

(13) Bright pair (4/3:4)

(14) Dusty veil (3/1:1)

(15) Light glow from M45 (4/2:2)

(16) Collimation preserved (4/1:1)

(17) Candied planets (1/1:1)

(18) Yerkes' inclinometer (3/3:3)

(19) Hawaiian pilgrimage (1/1:1)

(20) Space telescope cataract (2/2:2)

(21) Moon bobbing and nodding (4/3:3)

(22) Freeze frame cover-ups (5/2:1)

(23) Neptune's reflected color (1/1:1)

(24) Inner solar system legacy of "Oort
clouders" (4/4:4)

(25) Lunar rover transport (3/2:2)

(26) Time for meteors (2/2:2)

ACROSS

1. Hipparchus scale (abbv.); also light shunned at star parties unless equipped with red filter.
3. Not first.
7. May see flashing lights and hear sounds here.
9. A riddle to a scientist.
11. A kind of elemental spectroscopy. Knudsen, Kirchoff, and others laid the groundwork.
12. Shield for a security light (2 words).
15. Orion the hunter could be considered this if the lion is interpreted a shield.
16. A trip to here may be necessary if one looks at the sun through a telescope without a filter.
17. Monetary unit for the Subaru telescope.
18. An oxygen, sulfur, and selenium "groupie"; only formed in a supernova.
19. Don't expect ______ to tow your spaceship to the nearest gas giant!
21. What one must do to dark-adapt (among other things).
22. "Quaking" G-class stars could be called this color (poetic license).
24. What astronomy and asters have in common.
25. Transcendental and irrational.
27. Animated.
28. Organization that may tune to ET.
30. Title for physicist Isaac Newton.
32. What 30-across used to disperse visible light.
34. Same letters as 11-across, in reverse.
35. Description of a dreary night for optical astronomers (2 words).
36. Related to parsec (abbv.).

DOWN

1. A swath of stars no longer seen in light polluted skies.
2. Greek sailors tried to placate Poseidon with this constellation (in sculpture form).
3. Like flashing fireworks or the twinkle in your eyes (2 words; singular).
4. Name of the scientist who is considered the father of the inflationary theory of the universe (first initial and last name).
5. ETN astronomy club (in part).
6. To calibrate Libra.
7. Egyptian sun god.
8. Bright light beam (2 words); rhymes with 1-down.
10. Classification of a deep sky object.
13. Son of Aphrodite.
14. The stars spread out as a curtain _____ the heavens (poetic).
20. Related to the sky.
23. Kind of galaxy (abbv.).
26. The eye, so colorful.
28. Astronomers may go to this place to keep in shape for the next event when the conditions in 36-across prevail.
29. Interrogate an astronomer.
31. One of the visual magnitude or color indices.
33. Possessive pronoun; e.g., "It's __ telescope!"

(posted September 11, 2004; expect to see puzzle in the International Dark-Sky Association publications January 2005)

"Radio Poetry," a genre that I have coined, is a blend of didactic poetry and astrophysics that usually addresses some aspect of radio astronomy. Knowledge of astronomy (especially radio astronomy) is not necessary to enjoy the poetry, but if known, will enrichen the experience significantly.

Usually it is written in association with a public astronomy lecture, here, it is written as a puzzle. Clues about a specific Messier object are provided in poesy. The object is to determine which one it is. However, the poem can be enjoyed without trying to solve a puzzle. The distilled character of this undisclosed heavenly body portrays the awesome beauty our universe.

Though a limerick is well-suited for puzzles, it is not used here. Rather, I attempt a serious composition. The poem is called "M", after "Messier."

"M"

How mysterious O' nebulous tendrilled shard
Delirious bard, you who shout in measured yard
Celestial chimes that echo colored rings
As floral pines in scented breeze do swing
Auroral rhymes are plucked on spectral strings
The choral lines in vented glees do bring
These dancing fireflies by magnet drawn
Which swarm the cosmic skies
Enchants the heart until the dawn
Puts sparkles in the eyes.

How beautiful this blue veil-ed and speckled cloud
Laudable shroud, its twisted furrows, crimson plowed
With lonely single stellar jewel adorned
Is mingled with the oxen's pointed horn
And scintill'ed shine amidst the gases torn
Through wrinkled space this remnant light sojourns
A broken heart of once a noble king
Throbs still, though torn apart
Begins its summer song to sing
In solstice morning light

The theme of this puzzle is obviously astronomy. Some clues have nothing to do with astronomy. Some are very easy, others very hard and best acquired by difference. Some "poetic license" is used. Many of the entries are designed to teach. This is my first attempt to construct a crossword puzzle; I hope you will enjoy it (see note i below).

(Copy the image to your desktop and print (6"x7"). Copy and paste the clues to a word document).

Clues ACROSS

1. Spectacularly starry
7. Constellation Lyra
12. Planet whose magnetic poles are nearly in the ecliptic plane
14. Variable stars
18. Astronomical distance measurement, chopped-form
19. Window's operating system
20. Sweet influences from M44
22. Light of all frequencies (abbrev.)
24. ___ -of-view in a telescope
27. Usually a positively charged particle (astronomical context)
29. High energy telescope replaced by Chandra
31. Consequence of a small dip (nutation) in Earth's spin axis
34. This element was first discovered in the Sun
36. Pronoun
37. Alpha-Lrae (intentionally misspelled)
38. Never (in Spanish)
40. Center of our solar system
41. This noxious gas is predicted to form in our atmosphere if a directed gamma ray burst occurs in our galaxy
42. Taurus
43. Galactic classification
45. Azores and the Florida Keys
46. Classic galactic cluster showing gravitational lensing
47. Taurus, again
49. Index marker
50. Chaos
52. One format used to save pictures
54. To have had an alien encounter
56. Neutral scale for picture calibration
57. Number of major orbs, counting the disintegrated precursor- now the asteroid belt
59. An extraterrestrial life-searching engineer
61. Dyslexic hunter's star
62. Penetrates interstellar dust
63. Emulsifier found in chocolate
64. A Swiss work, "The Magic Mountain" (2 words)
69. Pulse characteristics: rise time and _____
70. The world
72. Possible abbreviation for liquid nitrogen
73. Antimony- it is only made in a supernova explosion
74. Out from (prefix)
75. The false September/October dawn. A glow from comet and asteroid dust.
81. A full Moon
82. Hayden Planetarium production "The Search for Life: Are We Alone?" animation expert, David R. N______
84. This poet's aviary- Corvus
85. A white dwarf which is dwarfed by the brightness of it's hot binary companion
86. Tenement for elemental electrons
88. Referring to the Veil, the Crab, the Triffid, and the Lagoon
92. Prefix meaning "the same"; e.g., C-12 and C-14
93. Genitive case for Arcturus' constellation (abbrev.)
95. A sports organization
97. Alloys with copper or tin
98. Antenna configurations: broadside array and _____ -fire array
99. Describes a supplication to a star
102. Why Earth has seasons
103. New (prefix)
104. Form of most metals in the crust
105. What the Star of Bethlehem did for the Magi

Clues DOWN

1. Fate of massive suns
2. A streetcar
3. Spica, of sorts
4. Same as 72 across
5. A measure of candle power
6. Astronomy organization in California
7. Result of hydrogen fusion in the star's core
8. Slang term for telescope that has color dispersion correction
9. A main factor in the "Planet of the Apes"
10. Occult symbol (prefix)
11. Orbiting telescope
13. Global array of radio telescopes: V___
14. Execute number-crunching
15. That is
16. Cloud-to-ground plasma flow
17. Solar coronal glory
21. Three-toed sloth
23. Objective focal length divided by eyepiece focal length
24. "The buck stops here" (concerning stellar fusion)
25. "A relatively general person"
26. Type A2 summer triangle star
28. Noble gas
29. Star color index
30. Radioactive tracers
32. American Chemical Society
33. Semiconductor element useful in modern RF electronics
34. Street vagabond
35. Degenerate material in a white dwarf
40. Clever not so cleverly spelled
44. Hale-Bopp
47. Chomps-down
48. Cardinal direction
50. Graph of stellar distribution according to its luminosity and temperature
51. Analytic instrument used to determine amount of elements present
53. Battery electrolyte
55. Satellite of a most distant planet
56. Favored lunar formation theory involves what type of collision between Earth and a Mars-sized object while in their molten state? (verb form)
58. Lewis and Clark charted this region with the aid of celestial fixes
60. A Saros cycle (nearest year)
62. Proxy (prepositional phrase)
65. Cholesterol
66. Occupies the venerable spot on the sky that Thuban in Draco did 5000 years ago
67. Both a unit of mass and of force (to confuse the student)
68. Cygnus-A and the Crab Nebula are examples
70. Former USSR space station
71. Notable astronomy faculty is at this southern academic institute
76. Illinois train
77. Greenwich Mean Time
78. Assyrian deity that conceivably could replace Pices in the Zodiac
79. GPS receiver on a parabolic antenna (sort of)
80. His observations through the Mount Palomar telescope caused Einstein to renounce his steady-state model of the universe
81. Obsolete recording medium
83. The hypergiant star (20-40 solar masses) in Cassiopeia; currently convulsing
87. "Star Wars" character (shortened form)
89. Pixel register in CCD photography
90. Probable ensign (zodiac sign) for the Old Testament tribe of Judah
91. First name of a German amateur astrophotographer
94. General statement about stars in globular clusters
96. Alan, Albert, or Alawishous
99. Same as 36 across
100. Conjugation of the verb "to be"
101. Stamp of approval for home electrical appliances

Radio Astronomy Crossword Puzzle in SARA Journal, April/May 2007 Issue