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You served as an assistant to the late legendary astronomer Hypatia Rubin. Prior to her passing, professor Rubin shared that she has discovered something magical with her advanced telescope, and she has recorded it in her notes - which are locked in a safe behind her portrait.

Due to her age, she unexpectedly passed! Her legacy is locked behind this safe, and many have failed to unlock it.

"The only way we can pry it open is with explosives", says the locksmith, "To do that, we need to first remove the safe from the wall - which will damage the building. We also risk losing valuable items in the safe if the explosion is too strong!"

You are sad to witness your professors legacy disappear in the safe. But you don't give up easily!

As you're working through her room, and clearing out the drawers for clues, you notice a series of star maps with cryptic messages. Except for the last sky maps, all others have words associated with them.

After spending some time deciphering the puzzle, you finally found a way to unlock the safe! What did you do?

star-puzzle

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Method:

I first noticed that there are equal numbers of points on the line as letters in each word, so each star that is used represents a letter of the alphabet. The lines denote the order of the letters within the word. Therefore to decipher the code, we must find a given word that has the same star connected, for each of the stars within the bottom 3, to form 3 new words. I will spend some time doing this now.

However:

The star which consistently corresponds to E, makes it seem like the star which is a V in LOVE is shared with the O in WOMAN, and I also notice that the M in WOMAN and CHARM don't line up between those words, so my theory on the line denoting the order does not quite work out.

Result:

Using known stars which are shared across the different words, I have deciphers the message to be "CVEOR EYS HER" which looks like "COVER HER EYES" so therefore:

To unlock the safe you must:

Cover the eyes of her portrait.

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  • $\begingroup$ beat me by a few mins, though still working on the words formed $\endgroup$
    – Nobody
    Commented Feb 26, 2019 at 11:14
  • $\begingroup$ though can you explain why - prageny fgne bs Jbzna (z) qbrf abg zngpu jvgu 2aq be 4gu fgne bs Punez (rot13) $\endgroup$
    – Nobody
    Commented Feb 26, 2019 at 11:20
  • $\begingroup$ I'm thinking my theory of the order is defunct, or OP made a mistake $\endgroup$
    – AHKieran
    Commented Feb 26, 2019 at 11:24
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    $\begingroup$ @Adib the inconsistencies which have been pointed out make it so that people may be discouraged from following this line of thinking, if the inconsistencies were removed it would be solvable in 10-15 mins given access to paper and pens $\endgroup$
    – Nobody
    Commented Feb 27, 2019 at 5:05
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    $\begingroup$ @Adib it is a good little puzzle but I think if you change it so that the lines show the correct order then it would be easier to know you're on the right track. I assume in practice each image will be on a separate bit of paper so they will have to work out the order of the final words, as they were jumbled up here. I think that would then make a good puzzle room thing. $\endgroup$
    – AHKieran
    Commented Feb 27, 2019 at 9:30

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