Today’s NIT Strands Tips, Answers and Help for December 15, #287

In search of the latest Strands match? Click here for our daily highlights tipsas well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Connections puzzles.

Strands today is fun. I don’t know about you, but 2024 was a great year for stargazing for me. We flew to Cleveland to see it a total solar eclipse from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, where they played Black Hole Sun, Ain’t No Sunshine and Here Comes the Sun as the sun went away and then came back. And the Northern Lights appeared — faintly — where I live in Seattle. If stargazing is your favorite pastime, you might just be fine with today’s Strands puzzle, but read on for hints and answers.

Also, I go into depth about Fr rules for Strands in this story.

If you are looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NIT puzzle tips page.

Read more: NIT Connections turns 1: These are the 5 hardest puzzles so far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands topic is: Moonlighting

If that doesn’t help, here’s a clue: From green cheese.

Words to unlock hints in the game

Your goal is to find the hidden words that match the theme of the puzzle. If you’re stuck, find all the words you can. Each time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the words. These are the words I used to get those hints, but any four or more letter words you find will work:

• GLUE, GLUE, BEST, BEST, CUTTING, OUT, PULL, REST, TEAR, REST, PANE, BLUE, CROSS, PATE, PATES

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers related to the topic. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that runs from one side of the puzzle to the other. Once you have them all (originally I thought there were always eight, but I learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the non-spangram responses:

• FULL, DESCENDING, CUT, GIBBOUS, QUARTER, CRESCENT

Today’s strand spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is LUNAR PHASES. To find it, start with L which is five letters down in the far left column and scroll over.